Two Worlds
by Son Goshen
Summary: AU. Somehow, Ace found himself catapulted across dimensions to an alternate world where pirates were mafia members instead, when he was sure he had just died. He accidentally stumbles upon himself and finds out that the Blackbeard of this world was plotting, and now he has to stop this world from repeating the same incident of Marineford before it's too late.
1. Just a Dream

**Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece. If I did, Ace wouldn't have died.**

* * *

_There were so many memories. Meeting Sabo. Meeting Luffy. Setting sail. Becoming Whitebeard's son. Blackbeard. Impel Down. Marineford battle. Akainu. The magma fist. _

_Blood. So much blood. His insides were burnt. Last words...  
_

An entire lifetime had just passed.

Ace bolted upright, shivering and sweating. He touched his chest, and to his surprise, there was no bleeding, gaping hole that was just there. There was just a thick layer of bandages wrapped around. Looking at his hands, he saw a few tubes attached, dripping some kind of substance.

Surveying his surroundings, he found out he was sitting on a hospital bed.

"What the," he mumbled, rubbing his eyes in confusion. What was-

Oh. It was just a dream, a freakishly long one, and simply too vivid for his tastes.

Though it may be a completely fantasy, it felt all too real, like he was actually there. And things sort of made sense in a crazy way. Dreams were not supposed to make sens. Hell, he could even remember where it began, and you were not supposed to remember how your dreams begun.

He noted that there were several scary similarities between his dream pirate self, similarities about another life he kept hidden from his friends and family. Things he never told anyone.

Both dream Ace and real life Ace had a notorious father who was executed. It happened that his dad was known as the Mafia Lord, controlling the strongest famiglia in the history of Grand Line, the largest city. He was executed before Ace was born by the government. And of course, Ace had decided to be part of the mafia, just like dream Ace decided to be a pirate. The stories had mirrored each other, only taking place in different universes.

One thing that bothered the teen the most, though, was that he was unaware of whether his younger adopted brother, Luffy, was involved in any of the darker business. Following his insane dream, it would be so that he was the infamous Straw Hat.

Luffy would've kept that secret away from his big brother very well. It was quite surprising that the younger had managed to accomplish this kind of feat. Luffy was the straightforward and honest type. He would have never imagined his brother to be part of the mafia, even if he had hated the government just as much as Ace did.

He never told Luffy about what he did at night, and always tried to return before it was time for his brother to go to school. He also noticed a strange tendency of his younger brother to look around the house before he left. And these days, it seemed like he was always tired and not his usual hyper and optimistic self.

And the devil fruits... he held out his hand and concentrated. There it was. A small ball of flame appeared, hovering right above his palm.

His thoughts were interrupted when the door leading to the hospital hall suddenly burst in, and a teenaged raven haired boy charged in whilst screaming, "AAAAAAAAAAAAACEEEEEEEEEE!" Ace hastily distinguished the fire as Luffy pounced on him and proceeded to squeeze him to death in a choking hug.

"You should be quieter, yoi," came another voice.

Ace grinned slightly. He'd recognize that anywhere.

"No, it's alright!" he called out, "Marco, I'm awake."

A man with a pineapple like hairstyle walked into the room with a disapproving expression when he saw what Ace's little brother was doing. "Luffy, it would be a good idea to get off your brother. He's barely recovering, yoi."

The teen immediately got off and said worriedly, "Did I just hurt you?"

Ace shook his head and laughed. Classic Luffy behavior. "Nope," he replied, amused, "I'm alright."

"I was so worried! They carried you in and you were all bloody and stuff and then I thought you died but Marco said you'll be fine but I was still so worried!" Luffy babbled, "And then after that you were out for like so many days and the doctors said you were in a coma which meant that you weren't going to wake up for a long time and I was afraid you'll never wake up because they said that sometimes that might happen and-" He stopped when he realized his brother wasn't exactly paying attention anymore.

Ace frowned. So it seems as if he had been out for several days. Then, he remembered a bit more of the chaotic events that had occurred before he was unfortunately sent to the hospital.

It was a large fight that involved the Whitebeard Famiglia and the Big Mom Famiglia, and he got wounded heavily… then the rest was a blank.

"Hey Ace." The younger sibling was trying to get his attention again, by prodding him in the cheek.

"Huh? Oh, sorry about that. I'm still a little… tired from the coma and getting hurt and all," he apologized.

"Maaahh, it's alright," Luffy said cheerfully, and he launched once again into one of his many random adventures with those strange friends of his.

The rest of the visit had gone rather well as he tried to immerse himself in conversations with his brother and his best friend. Yet, the dream lingered and refused stay away.

Ace could only wonder if there was a deeper meaning to it.

* * *

**Author's note: So, this is one of the times where a plot bunny hits you and you start furiously typing the prologue/first chapter down without planning out the entire thing, and it usually happens when it's midnight and you're about to go to sleep. That's the reason why it may be so short and a little confusing, jumbled, and whatnot. This little thing (might become a big thing, who knows) feeds my denial. I refuse to believe that Ace is dead. LOL. Two years. Still like this. Oh well, whatever, I'm pretty sure I'm not alone.**

**I can't guarantee that there won't be OOCness because this is a fanfic, and it's alternate universe, so you'd have to excuse me. *sweat drop*  
**

**I hope you guys liked it. I'd love it if you'll leave a review. You get a cookie! **

**By the way, if you guys ever have the time, you should check out Kill the Rabbit by Mountain97. It's one of the best Ace fanfics ever. ** **The author is nothing less than amazing. =) **

**Have a great day~ **


	2. Night Activities

**Thanks to Mountain97 and azab for reviewing! Thanks so much. Now, enjoy this chapter. Not as long as I like, but it'll have to do. **

**Disclaimer: I own One Piece, I do! *gets sued* Okay, no, I don't. I don't own the images I used to create the book cover, either.**

* * *

"Are you alright, Ace?" Luffy asked, his face leaning close very close to his brother's in concern. In fact, a little too close for Ace's tastes. "We could always go out and eat."

The freckled teen was currently chopping carrots for the beef stew he was preparing for dinner. Thankfully, there weren't any broken bones from his previous injury, so the hospital had discharged him quickly enough two days after he woke up. The doctor did warn him, though, to not overexert himself. Because of all the blood transfusions he had to go through, there was a small chance he might have fever, combined with chills, nausea, and all that went with having a fever. Ace didn't mind, though. He was glad that he was even alive.

However, Luffy, been the sweet little brother he was, wouldn't stop fussing over the fact that Ace was still keeping up all the household duties.

"I'm quite alright, Luffy, don't worry," he replied for the umpteenth time. Using the knife, he scooped up all the carrots and dumped them into the bubbling stew, adjusting the temperature slightly so it wouldn't become overcooked. He gave it a little stir and tasted it, then adding a little sprinkle of salt. Just a bit light.

Oh, don't look at him like that since he's cooking and whatever. The top cooks in the world were men. And when you never had a mother nor did you have someone who was close enough for a mother figure, _and _when you lived pretty much either by yourself or with other guys, you'd know to pick up some decent cooking skills.

"Now shoo," he said. "Come back when dinner's done. Go call your friends or something. Call ummm… Zoro."

"That's a great idea!" the straw hat wearing boy exclaimed and dashed off to the living room where their home phone rested at.

Ace sighed tiredly. He always seemed to have a load of energy, whereas the elder felt as if he was stretched thin with so many responsibilities such as household duties, paying the rent, keeping up with his job, sending off and picking up Luffy everyday for school, his duties as the commander of the second division of the Whitebeard famiglia – the list went on. The only time he got to slack off was when he was around the gang at night.

His sharp ears picked up a sudden change to Luffy's usual joyous tone. It became more hushed and urgent. "Really? That's great!" It was clear that he was barely able to keep in his excitement and stay quiet.

"Tonight? Okay then… Mhmmm… Hey Zoro, you wanna come over for dinner?" His voice rose again. "No? … Why not? … Awwww… okay…" Luffy pouted even though his best friend couldn't possibly see it. "Ohhhhh… alright… have fun then, heheheh… Eeep! Zoro, you are so mean!"

Ace's attention was drawn back to fixing up dinner as it seemed that whatever Luffy was talking about was not important. He frowned, thinking back to the disturbing dream. Was it really possible for his innocent brother to be involved with the mafia? It was true Luffy went out late at night sometimes, but he always came back pretty soon, right?

Wait, he couldn't have known that. He himself came back at impossibly late times, and at days where he wasn't involved with such things, he slept early. He needed all that sleep to keep up with his nocturnal schedule.

Ace shook his head. He was sure his mind was in denial. Luffy as the Straw Hat made perfect sense, but still…

"Aaaaaaaaceeeeeee!" Two long rubber hands had latched themselves onto his shoulders, and before he could yell "stop", the teen had already launched himself. Since it was rubber, after all, the momentum knocked Ace forward, forcing the knife in his hand to drop and pass through his hand. Thank goodness for his pyro powers or half it would be gone. He watched as flesh was replaced by flames. It flickered, then disappeared as the hand was healed.

"Honestly, you should be more careful," Ace chastised. "If the two of us had not been part of that freak experiment, I would've lost my hand! I think no dinner tonight would fix your bad habit."

Luffy pouted with the cuteness only a younger brother could achieve and pulled on his best puppy eyes. "Don't be so mean!" he whined.

"Too bad!" Ace stuck out his tongue childishly.

"I'm going to Nami's house tonight," the rubber teen suddenly said.

"Huh?" His mind didn't follow up with the sudden change of topic.

"Everyone's going! Well, except Franky and Brook because they are busy. We're doing something together." By everyone, Luffy meant his closest eight friends. Ace had lived with him long enough to know who he was referring to.

"Sure," he replied hesitantly. It sounded kind of suspicious in his mind, or maybe he became a little too paranoid after the hospital episode. But then he grinned. Tonight was another work day. Perfect opportunity to find out if Luffy was really doing what he just said he was doing.

"Oh and by the way," he added casually, "You aren't involved with any gang activity, are you?"

"N-n-no…? Wh-why would y-you think s-so?" his brother stammered nervously, promptly beginning to whistle a random tune as sweat began to form around his forehead.

He was ever a horrible liar.

* * *

Ace sat in the little room with just a small, wooden desk and a chair they call his office. There was no mission tonight, just paperwork. Loads and loads of paperwork.

The clean white sheets sat in neat little piles, waiting to be filled out and signed.

It was stupid, really, to be forced to do paperwork during midnight. Why couldn't Pops just have Marco bring it to him at work in the morning or something? All the members of the Whitebeard Famigila had worked in a big company that was called Whitebeard Corps as a front. Pops still gave them salary every month, even though they didn't do much in their day job.

However, a tiny part of his mind told him that it was because the old man cared for him. The second division was under Marco's command tonight on some patrol work to maintain their vast territory in Grand Line. Ace had been oddly omitted, even though he was in charge of his own division.

Really, he'd prefer to go out and knock down some people than sitting _here_, in a small dingy room. His hands were already becoming sore from writing so much.

He made his way to the little box that sat in a corner and bent down to examine something. The top of his finger lit up in flames as he activated his ill-gotten powers. Who's smart idea was it to not have a light in here, anyways?

There. The stack that he was looking for sat right at the top. Expected.

Due to the fact that all gang activities had occurred during night, the government could never catch a good enough photo. It was usually blurred and in grayscale, something that was rather annoying as rival gangs could never identify each other correctly, thus leading to unnecessary violence and death.

However, some famiglias like Whitebeard didn't operate for riches and fame. It was simply to have fun and go against the corrupt government, for rebellious souls that didn't like being confined in law. People who thirsted for freedom. Like Ace.

Seriously, the stupid police forces should get better photographers. From the image, he could tell that the person had stopped for a moment for the cameraman to take a good shot before running off.

It was what looked like a young boy due to the slightly rounded face. He had tilted the straw hat so it covered his eyes, casting a complete shadow over it. A maniacal grin was stretched across his face.

No matter how you looked at it, that kid had to be Luffy, no doubt about it. "That brat," he muttered, his fists clenching together, "Why the hell did he not tell me he was Straw Hat?"

An idea formed in his head. Flinging the door open, he dashed out, ignoring the paperwork that still needed to be done. He could always finish it later, right?

* * *

"So," Nami said, studying the pill she held in her hands carefully with a pair of rubber gloves, "this is one of the Devil Fruits, yes?"

The Straw Hat gang all leaned closer. It was amazing how that tiny purple and white drug could give the user special powers. Sometimes, very freakish powers.

"It looks like the one I took," Luffy commented, prodding it. "It tasted horrible!" He made a disgusted face.

Everyone else blinked at his comment.

"Ummm… Luffy," Usopp began hesitantly, "you're not supposed to chew on it or keep it in your mouth. You're suppose to swallow it with a few gulps of water."

The straw hat teen laughed and scratched the back of his head. "Oops!"

The others could only sigh. Typical Luffy behavior. It still confused them sometimes why their leader had chosen to be part of the underground when he had such a personality.

"So what's so special about that damn pill?" A certain moss-haired man woke up from his short nap and opened one eye.

"You don't know, shitty marimo?" Sanji scoffed, taking a long drag from his cigarette.

Zoro glared back at the cook. "I know too damn well what they do, but I don't know the history behind it."

"Ooooh, so the meathead actually _cares _about something intelligent for once," the blonde said mockingly, tossing his cigarette at Zoro, who deftly caught it with two fingers.

"You want a fight, dartboard brow?!"

"Bring it on, marimo!"

"STOOOOOOOOOP!" They froze in mid action and clutched their ears when Nami had screamed. She smirked, satisfied that she had stopped the two monsters from going all out in a battle. "Robin, why don't you explain to us all about the history of the Devil Fruits?"

Brushing aside a few bangs, Robin began a long winded explanation. "It all started with the government…"

"Fifty years before the current time, the mafia was a very active underground force, much more so than anything. The intelligence forces, afraid they will one day overthrow the government, decided to conduct several illegal experiments on humans to create a weapon if this was to happen.

"It was its own operation, unknown to civilians. Only the high ranking officials in the government knew, and they were the ones that funded this. Eventually, one scientist found out a specific formula to engineer a type of medicine that will give the taker a specific type of power.

"The medicine took form as small purple and white pills, distinguishable by the swirly markings that were unique to only those drugs. Every pill held different powers, some which were strange and useless unless the user knew how to work them properly.

"They were categorized in three types, Zoan, Paramecia, and Logia. Zoan could turn the user into an animal. Paramecia had strange powers. Luffy's Gomu Gomu powers are an example of Paramecia. The Hana Hana no Mi pill I took is also an example of Paramecia. Logia is the most powerful and rare of all. The user could create, manipulate, and become a specific element-"

"Like Ace!" Luffy's cheerful voice broke Robin's speech.

"Who?" she asked, bewildered.

"His older brother," Zoro grunted.

"Wait. A monster has an older brother… which means the older brother is even more of a monster!" Usopp said, thinking of Luffy's freakish powers and strange tendencies. One would always assume the younger would take after the elder.

"Cooooool!" Their youngest member, Chopper, breathed in amazement. Someone even stronger than Luffy!

Robin cleared her throat, indicating that she liked to continue. They stopped talking abruptly and waited for her to carry on.

"These were named Devil Fruits, because they gave devilish powers. The scientists managed to create innumerable amounts of these pills; no one knew the exact number, but small facts and details tell us that there are quite a few. The leader, the one who had designed these, eventually went mad.

"The government had confined him within the laboratory in hopes that he would never cease to create these for soldiers and the police force.

"He had scattered them across the entire Grand Line and even beyond, to the New World. They were hard to find, and sometimes people may accidentally take them. The fiasco was completely covered up, and no one ever knew of anything about it, until some twenty years after the event, a few mafia famiglias had found out the truth about the pills. Now, Devil Fruits had become more or less common knowledge, and the more powerful a gang is, the more likely they are to have members who had Devil Fruit powers."

She finished and waited expectantly for someone to comment. However, she never got to know if anyone was about to say anything, as out of nowhere, a rock flew at her. Her hand instantly shot up out of reflex and caught the stone.

The Straw Hat crew looked up to see a man crouched on the roof top of the building, part of the alley they were currently hiding in. He wore a dark trench coat with a fedora hat, which combined with the dark, blocked most of his face. One finger was lit up in flames like a candle.

"It's Fire Fist!" Zoro said, recognizing the outfit. He wasn't a former bounty hunter for nothing.

In an attempt to be brave, Usopp yelled, "What do you want?" His voice shook. Fire Fist was a famed gang member, part of the Whitebeard gang, one of the four strongest mafia groups that were currently in Grand Line. The man had to be pretty powerful to become a commander of one of the divisions, not to mention the insane bounty of 550,000,000 beli.

"What do we have here? The Straw Hat gang, huh? Fancy seeing you little kids here," the man said, amusement clear in his voice. "To answer the long nose's question, I want that pill Devil Child is holding."

Under his breath, he muttered, "Hotarubi." A few small, yellowish-green fire balls sneaked behind the Straw Hat leader. He didn't notice it.

"If you want that, then you'll have to pass through us!" Luffy shouted getting into offensive position. "Gomu Gomu no-"

"Hidaruma."

Those fire balls were sent flying towards him, and he was thrown roughly back into the wall of the building on the opposite side. "Augh!" he cried in pain.

"Monkey D. Luffy, oblivious as ever," Fire Fist commented.

A unanimous thought went through the Straw Hats: this is bad.

This man knew their leader's real name. He could go and tell the government, and they'd be able to track Luffy down. Once they have done that, they'll be able to find the identities of the rest of them as well, as they were close friends of his in real life. They'll all be done for.

"We might have to kill this man. We can't let him live if he knows Luffy's name," Robin stated the obvious.

Zoro nodded, not bothering to speak around the katana in his mouth. Usopp had his slingshot ready, while Nami drew out her Clima-Tact. Chopper had transformed.

"You actually want to fight me? For the sake of what?" Fire Fist questioned, smirking.

"For the sake of Luffy, of course!" they replied in unison without a moment of hesitation. That was, in their mind, a stupid question to ask.

He jumped down from the building and landed right by Luffy with accuracy. "You've gotten yourself a good family, Luffy," he said, extending a hand towards the rubber teen. With his other hand, he tilted the hat upwards so they all saw his face.

"Ace!" Luffy exclaimed in surprise.

* * *

**Cliffy. Please don't kill me, or there will be no one to write the next chapter. :P I'd love feedback. *hint hint* *nudge nudge* Also, I have been thinking of putting yaoi in the story. Thoughts, anyone? **


	3. Awaken

**Five reviews~ I feel so loved~ Now, enjoy the chapter. :D**

* * *

The Straw Hats took a much closer look at the man who they had just taken as their enemy, now that he had lifted the hat so light illuminated his face.

He wasn't old, nor did were there any prominent scars (from what they saw, anyways). They had expected a veteran with a stricter face and attitude since he had such a high bounty but… it was quite the opposite. Ace was barely an adult, and there were freckles sprinkled across his cheeks, giving an almost childish look. Wavy black hair fell to his chin with an expression of mischief on his face. Clearly not a creepy old guy as they half expected Fire Fist would be. However, they couldn't help but notice two very large and prominent guns he carried on his back, and a dagger he kept on his belt. There was no doubt that they had spilled quite an amount of blood in the past.

"Fire Fist is really your brother?" Sanji asked, an eyebrow raised. He didn't relax from his battle stance yet; better safe than sorry. People that were part of the mafia were never any good, unless they were gangs like the Whitebeard Famiglia, or the Straw Hat gang. Most of the famiglias that existed were focused on getting power, and they used all kinds of dirty methods to gain it. They didn't care much about their comrades, either. Sometimes they even killed each other in cold blood.

Luffy didn't respond to Sanji's question. Instead-

"Fight me!" he yelled, jumping up in excitement. His face positively shone with enthusiasm. "I'm going to beat you this time!" He got into an offensive stance, prepared to fight.

His gang could only sigh. That was just their captain's typical behavior, and seeing as he acted this way, it meant that Fire Fist was definitely his brother.

Ace smirked in response, amused by Luffy's reaction. He wasn't surprised that this was what he would say. "What makes you think you'll beat me? You have never done so, even back in the days when you fought a hundred times against me and Sabo." Muttering "Enkai" under his breath, his entire body lit up in flames as he got ready as well. He didn't bother to warm up, since the battle was going to end soon, anyways.

The younger leapt up and charged at his brother, drawing back his fist while shouting, "Gomu Gomu no-"

The attack was cut off when Ace yelled, "Hibashira!". A large column of flames completely enveloped him, and Luffy let out a strangled cry of pain before falling onto the ground. The fire dissipated soon after, as the opponent had been quickly defeated. He collapsed, looking like he was just burnt and roasted. His eyes rolled back, tongue sticking out. It would've been a disgusting sight if the situation wasn't so funny. Ace crossed his arms, unimpressed.

"Aaahh!" Chopper squeaked in fright, running comically around in circles. "Someone call a doctor! … Wait. I am a doctor!" Upon the realization, he rushed to his leader and pulled out a first aid kit from his pack, attempting to revive the burnt rubber man, though the effort was in vain. Luffy remained unconscious.

Meanwhile, Ace had turned to the rest of the Straw Hats. He cleared his throat and bowed 45 degrees as a sign of respect. "I am very pleased to meet you all. Thank you for taking care of my brother. I hope he hasn't been very troublesome for you all," he said politely. And he did mean it. He knew all too well how much of a handful Luffy could become.

The Straw Hats gaped at him. "This- this- is this really Luffy's brother?" Usopp questioned, amazed by his manners. Luffy was blunt, impolite, and sometimes almost borderline rude, even if he didn't mean it like that. Yet, his brother was a different story. You'd expect one to take after his older sibling. Their leader really should've taken after Ace.

"I'd love to get technical about my exact relationship with Luffy," Ace began, "but it's quite a long story, and it's getting rather late, so we could save it for another day. Well, that was more of an excuse than anything. He didn't really feel like going through all the adopted crap and liked to keep his background more or less a secret. Of course, unless Luffy had already blabbed it all out.

Nami stuck her hand into a pocket and drew out a cell phone. "It's almost four," she stated, "Our raid took quite a long time. We really should get going if we still want to go to school or work tomorrow." Lucky him. So it really got that late.

They nodded. "I got shitty morning duty at the Baratie tomorrow, so I better catch a few hours of sleep," Sanji stated. "I can't have my customers eat food that I cook when my mind's still half asleep."

"You're skipping college for a damn restaurant, love cook?" Zoro said, raising an eyebrow. "Sure about that?"

"Why the hell not? I'm the fuckin' sous-chef!"

"A crap cook like you?"

"You don't even know how to cook, do you, marimo?"

"Are you asking for a fight?"

"Bring it!"

"ENOUGH!" Nami screamed and pushed the two away for the second time in the hour. "Really!"

Zoro and Sanji turned away from each other and crossed their arms angrily, unhappy that the quarrel was left unresolved.

"Hey little guy, just leave Luffy to me, alright?" Ace knelt down next to Chopper, who was still tending Luffy.

The reindeer looked up, surprised. "If that's alright… But I'm worried-"

"Don't," Ace cut him off. "He's gone through this god knows how many times already. He'll get back on his feet in no time. No need to worry about him." He shooed Chopper away, then scooped up his brother and slung him unceremoniously over his shoulder.

"Chopper, you know you really should be going," Usopp remarked. His home was the furthest away out of all of them, and he usually transformed into his deer form to get there faster. It was rather lucky for him that there was a forest to hide him. Especially during this season, hunters were all over the wild, and they would prefer to have the kid be safe and not turned into venison.

"You're right! Bye guys!" Chopper waved and promptly transformed into a blue-nosed reindeer, taking off towards the distance. Hopefully there were barely anyone around the area, or he'll draw unwanted attention.

One by one, the Straw Hats slowly began to disperse, leaving their captain to his brother. They didn't worry too much about him, because Luffy always recovered quickly, both physically and mentally.

As the last of them disappeared, Ace sighed. "Why must I always be the responsible brother?" he whined quietly to himself, walking slowly back toward their apartment. _But really, Luffy, you've got yourself quite a nice gang. And to think I was all worried like a stressed out mother over this… heh._

* * *

That pain. That god-awful, burning, searing pain in his chest that just didn't fade away.

His entire body ached, on top of a raging headache that also refused to leave. His mind was assaulted with strange visions, visions that didn't quite make sense.

He was watching himself from another point of view. That man was clearly himself, but wasn't as well. That man was different, for a lack of a better word. This person might've lived in a different world, or maybe it was a strange dream caused by his headache, he was unsure.

His entire body was immobilized. He couldn't move. There was only a numb feeling where his limbs should be.

Yet, slowly, slowly he found out he was beginning to be able to feel. Bit by bit, he was able to discern what he was lying on. It was some sort of road, or alley, from the rough dirt and gravel. There was a tingly sensation in his toes and fingers, and he figured out that it meant he could move them again. And indeed, he felt them respond to his commands.

His hearing came back later on. He heard the scurrying and squeaking of mice and other creatures. Yells in the distant. Scuffling of fights. Occasionally, gunshots. Wherever he was, it wasn't a great place to be, and he could only hope he'll wake up soon.

Thirst and hunger came back. But he couldn't do anything about it, not when he was still paralyzed.

Minutes, hours, days, he didn't know how long had past. He didn't care. The biggest thing on his mind was this huge blank spot in his memories, before the visions came.

Of course he knew about his childhood, and later, the best days of his life, spent together with his comrades on their "father" 's ship. Wait…

Was he… no, did he die? There was a large fight between someone and him. And then, was that prison? A huge war. Burning pain in his chest. Bits and pieces of that missing part.

But the more he thought about it, the more his head hurt, and the more tired he felt, if that was even possible. He just couldn't force the memories to return, no matter how much he tried. They only came back when they wanted, triggered by the tiniest things.

Another long moment passed. It was a few minutes long, or another couple of hours for all he knew. A gut feeling suddenly told him to open his eyes, and do it soon. He had tried before, but never managed. The eyelids were like a thick blanket that covered his sight. It refused to budge. But he knew to trust that gut feeling, because it had saved his life several times in the past, and he was sure this time was no different.

This time had worked. He was blinked rapidly, momentarily disoriented by the light that shone into his eyes. It looked like the sun was about to rise soon, from the color of the sky as it was gradually beginning to lighten. He heard rough laughter, and out of pure instinct, he leaped up from his previous lying position, hands balling into fists. The voices and laughter were nearing him, and they didn't sound that friendly. In fact, they sounded like a bunch of drunkards, and very uneducated ones to boot.

"Ya shoulda realized 'twas a fuckin' Devil Fruit!" one laughed drunkenly. A sloshing sound. He was probably taking a drink from whatever alcohol it was.

Devil Fruit, huh?

"How da hell wa' I suppose ta know?" another replied quite angrily. "Boss was alreadeh angreh enuff wif me."

They all laughed at his comment. "Yah, glad he didn't kill ya dat time, eh?"

"No fuckin' shit, Sherlock!"

They were right around the corner. Heavy boots thumped on the hard pavement of the narrow alley. His eyes narrowed and adjusted his position to one that was more benefited to fighting. His hand went to check to see if the dagger was still strapped to the side, just in case things get out of hand. It was definitely better to lay off his powers right now, to avoid making a big scene. He had no idea where the hell he was, nor did he know what had happened.

Four men came walking unsteadily into his view. They were the big, buff, types with unkempt and scraggly hair and beard, with yellowed teeth. Their faces were very red, courtesy of the overload of booze they had previously consumed.

One of them noticed him and smirked. "Huh. Who da lil' punk 'ere?" he said, slurring over his words.

He cringed. He swore he never got that inebriated before, to the point where he couldn't even talk properly. Alcohol was not something he frequently drank. Sure, occasionally a bit of sake from time to time, but never bottles at a time, or anything that was more concentrated.

"Perfect," said another. "I was just lookin' fer a person ta fight." He cracked his knuckles in a menacing manner and grinned, eyeing him like he was fresh meat.

He couldn't help but roll his eyes at that comment. So these people were thosekinds of guys, the ones that were meatheads who got themselves wasted every other night. Yet, they couldn't just be ordinary people, because they knew of Devil Fruits. Normal people did not know what Devil Fruits were, and the ones who knew only thought them as legends.

"You don't want to fight me," he said, trying to persuade them to go away. It was always the first thing one should do. Walk away from the opponent if possible, or try to persuade them to not fight. Fighting only comes second. Escaping, to him, was never an option. Never.

It looked like persuasion failed though, as the four men only laughed at him in a mocking manner. "Ya pussy or somethin'?" the shortest one of them jeered.

A vein pulsed. Those people were the types that annoyed him the most. "We can either settle this peacefully, or we can do it the harder way," he said, a hint of warning in his tone.

"Oooooh, this punk is threatening us. Ha! As if!"

"We're part of the Bentan Famiglia, we don't take shit from no one!"

Famiglia? Famiglia, family, underground, gang… Mafia. They were from the mafia. He didn't know much about the topic, because they were never much of a threat to the World Government. They weren't as popular as pirates, either.

"If you want a fight, you'll get one," he whispered, tensing up.

"Let's get 'im, boys!" one of them yelled out. They raised their beer bottles as weapons and charged, shouting a battle cry. Quite over the top.

He hopped to one side, then ducked down to avoid the bottles, not bothering to just block them. Two of the bottles met and smashed into pieces, the owners yelling out in shock as the glass shards flew at them, grazing their faces and arms. Blood dripped out of the newly formed cuts, staining the gray pavement. The other two had swung a little too hard as they hoped to smash his face in. They lost balance due to the heavy momentum and spun in a circle, looking very much like idiots. They fell to the ground pathetically and groaned in pain, having smashed their heads together by accident. The two shattered bottles lay beside them.

"Stupid," he muttered. He tilted his orange cowboy hat so that it hid his eyes. Better that they don't recognize them, if they have heard of him. Most people have heard of his name before and knew what he looked like, thanks to his high bounty.

The sun was slowly and steadily rising from the horizon, giving the sky a yellowish tint, rather refreshing from the previous grayish blue.

The other two ran towards him once more, roaring in fury. One had a knife in his hands. As the man was about to stab downwards, he grabbed his wrist and jerked harshly, forcing the knife to fall and clatter uselessly onto the ground. A quick uppercut rendered the man unconscious.

Another tried to attack him from behind, but he quickly twisted around and kicked his abdomen, sending him flying into the opposite wall with a loud thump.

Too easy.

He sighed, slightly disappointed that those men didn't offer much of a challenge.

"W-wait," one of them croaked out, clutching his head in pain, "who the hell are you?"

He grinned. That was a question he was asked all too often. "Just call me… Fire Fist." And he took off running towards wherever he could hide for a while, before any sort of marine patrol had began and found him.

Or on a second thought… He tugged off a jacket off of one of them and slipped it on to hide his tattoos. Just in case.

* * *

It was one of those days where Ace didn't feel so well. Like something-was-up-and-whatever-it-was-it-ain't-gonna-be-fun sort of not well. This feeling had nothing to do with the fact that he found out his brother was one of the eleven infamous rookies the government often talked about. And it turned out that his brother's best friend was also one of the rookies as well. Well, that did disturb him quite a bit, but didn't faze him as much as he had expected.

Ace decided to pull a brilliant move. Ignore that damn feeling. He had been worrying ever since he had gotten out of the hospital like a mother hen. This wasn't like him.

He got up and looked around the kitchen for something to eat, to distract his mind. However, he quickly gave up when he found out that he didn't feel like eating; in fact, he was actually feeling quite sick in the stomach.

Fresh air would help, he concluded. Stepping out onto the balcony, he took a deep breath, trying to settle the mess in his head. He didn't get very far with sorting out his thoughts when something caught his eye and alarmed him.

Holy shit, was that really…?

It was a man wearing a tattered jacket and black shorts. He had a dagger strapped to the side of his belt, wearing an orange cowboy hat decorated with ruby beads that looked all too familiar. He felt frustrated, unable to see the man's face to confirm his suspicions.

Ace pondered about just simply jumping off the railing to stop the man, but figured the neighbors and passersby would be alarmed by his antics. Especially if any women saw it, they would scream. It might look a little like suicide, considering he lived on the fifth floor.

He ran to the door and flung it open, proceeding to dash down many flights of stairs, practically leaping down every set. At last, he reached downstairs and ran out to stop that person. "Hey, wait!"

The man stopped abruptly in surprise and turned towards him, looking directly into Ace's eyes. His mouth fell slightly open in shock.

"It's you," both of them whispered.

* * *

**An amusing author's note. Bentan was not based off of any existing pirate crew in One Piece. In fact, I created the name, basing it from a Chinese word. That word in question is ****笨蛋****, pronounced "Ben Dan" in romaji. It means idiot. Hehehe. And so I altered it slightly to "Bentan", which sounds more like a name than "Ben Dan" is. Also, Ace's mafia look is from Strong World. Except the fedora though… It just would look… hot… on Ace. :3 I saw a person cosplaying Strong World Ace with a fedora so I decided to utilize that. Thanks to the guy. The link is to the cosplay is here:**

** xiaozey . deviantart favourites / 49987176# / d4c3niu**

**Another thing I forgot to mention last time… I'm going to be using the Japanese terms of some stuff, such as "Shichibukai" and "Gomu Gomu no Pistol" instead of "Seven War Lords" and "Gum Gum Pistol. I prefer the Japanese over the English, because I just think … well, I'm not sure myself but I just prefer to use Japanese terms more than English for all of my fanfics.**

**Hope you liked this chapter! Stay tuned for the next~**

**P.S. I hope you guessed who that guy is… if you haven't… well… *sweat drops*.**


	4. Doppelganger

It was one of those moments where it felt like time had stopped and stood still for a short while. The mind goes into hyper drive and a million thoughts race across, then as a light bulb lit up, some part of the brain clicks, and everything falls into place. Ace wasn't quite sure what to do, now that he had actually met _him_, his supposed alternate self in an alternate, crazy world, which all sprouted from this insane dream he had during a coma.

It wasn't supposed to be real. Not at all.

He stared at himself, unable to form any words or proper thoughts. To be honest, he didn't think beyond stopping him, because all that was on his mind was that the dream was real. A tiny part of him sighed in relief, glad that he wasn't going insane, at least not yet. Yet, if anyone saw them… there was going to be a big problem.

Similar thoughts were racing through pirate Ace's mind as he warily examined his other self, trying to comprehend the situation. Their appearances were the same, down to the last freckle. It was honestly strange, looking at yourself, how you would've become if you had been born in different circumstances.

Then, another realization sprung up, a delayed response thanks to his shock.

Mafia. Meeting himself. Ending up in a random alley.

It took a moment for him to figure out he was in another world that was completely different from his own. It was something he should've realized sooner, but the buildings and structures were so similar to some places back in his world. Now. Ace didn't quite know how he ended up there, and that stupid blank memory refused to spring back. There were still just those strange clips that didn't make sense, but told of something upsetting.

Suddenly, his other self seemed to snap out of whatever reverie he was just in and dragged him brusquely by the collar of the stolen jacket, hauling him inside an apartment building. Ace barely registered the act and had nearly fallen over from the abrupt movement. That, and been dragged backwards. His double's eyes darted around nervously, as if afraid of anyone seeing them. Ace was about to open his mouth and politely object to been pulled around, but his other self spoke first. "What the hell are you doing here?!" he hissed furiously.

Well, that wasn't exactly what he had expected him to say. He crossed his arms, his temper flaring up swiftly. "I don't know either. I ended up in a coma, lying in a stupid alley, not knowing what the hell happened. And right after I woke up a few guys decided it was fun to attack me. My mind's still messed up."

There was a moment of silence as the other tried to digest this information. As if struggling to find proper words, he said hesitantly, "… But how did you know that I was you?"

"Because… you look exactly like me? Isn't that a rather obvious answer?" Ace had an inkling of an idea of what he was asking for, but pretended to be stupid. Just in case he was the only one who had freakish visions.

His double looked as if he was resisting the urge to knock some sense into him. He was fairly proud to say that one of his best skills was to annoy people. "No, not that. Did you happen to have strange dreams of some sort?"

"You had them, too? Guess I'm not the only nutcase here, then."

"Otherwise I wouldn't be asking you that, idiot. And I assumed what you saw was my life?"

"So you saw all of mine, then." Ace had to admit that it seemed to be easier to talk to yourself. Everything clicked together faster as the brains were almost like they were synched together.

Another pause.

Now, if his other self had seen all of what happened to him, then that meant he would know about the strange battles and the magma fist. He would finally be able to figure out that blank part in his memory. A strange gut feeling, though, told him to not ask the question. But he decided to ignore it. "Then…" he paused, thinking about how to phrase it to not sound like he was sure he died. "You know about… my last moments, right?" He hoped that phrasing would get the meaning across.

The other's face darkened, tensing. "I do." From the troubled expression, he obviously didn't want to talk more about it.

"What happened?" Something bad, obviously. He felt himself beginning to sweat from the nerves. He didn't really die, did he? Wasn't that just paranoia?

His double studied him for a while. "You forgot," he surmised. "I would expect so. I'd want to forget it, as well. Are you sure you want to know?"

Ace nodded.

"You died," he stated simply, expressionless. "And your last words were, even though I'm so worthless-"

"Even though I carry the blood of a demon, thank you for loving me" Ace finished in a whisper, remembering the words all too well. The beginning had acted as a trigger, and that horrifying experience was starting to come back. "… Oh… oh god…"

"It's coming back to you, isn't it?" His other self had an expression of sympathy.

Ace felt tears welling up in his eyes, threatening to spill. He didn't even dare to imagine how Luffy was coping right now with his death. When Sabo died, he cried so hard, and they didn't even know each other for very long. Ace had spent a good seven years living together with him. They were so close. If he had died… What was he going to do? Who's going to protect his weak little brother? Both Sabo and he were gone now. And Luffy had gone through hell and back to save him, going through all the levels of _Impel Down _to get to him, then fought tooth and nail in the Marineford war.

He just had to have his anger get him. It got him killed.

That was the most stupid thing he had ever done in his life.

Pops and all his brothers-in-arms, and all of Pops's allies had put their lives on the line to save him.

Ace was unaware that his legs were shaking and his breathing had picked up.

Heavy guilt.

Mafia Ace observed him with concern; he knew what he was thinking about. Luffy and the Whitebeard crew. He must be really worried about how his little brother would cope after his death (even though he was clearly alive in this world), and what happened to the Whitebeard in his world. He still remembered how the veteran pirate had stated that he had intended to die at Marineford, letting his sons escape. What had happened after Ace had died? Did he still…? Ace was unable to continue thinking, not wanting to imagine his death, even if he was from another world and not Ace's.

He had to admit that those were some nasty experiences his other self had gone through previously, especially with their world's Impel Down. Everyone in the underground business had dubbed it as Hell, because it was, pretty much, Hell. Watching it had made him feel incredibly lucky that he hadn't gone through such events – at least not yet.

His other self had begun to hyperventilate, and Ace figured it was a good idea to snap him out of his trance. "Hey," he said, shaking him gently.

"It's all my fault," the other muttered miserably, "My stupid fuckin' temper."

Guess the anger issue never changed. If Ace remembered correctly, the same problem had him ended up in the hospital. He really didn't know what to say to his pirate self, and so he decided to quietly lead him back to his apartment. _He will need some time to cool down and have everything sink in._

* * *

"You know you'll have to snap out of this eventually."

Ace knew that his mafia self was right, and to stay like this would be unhealthy, but … it just wasn't possible.

The guilt. The overpowering guilt that had swallowed him. All the death he had caused, all the pain and sorrow, when all boiled down it was his fault.

"Seriously."

Ace paid no attention. He heard the other sigh in exasperation and proceeded to poke hard him in the shoulder repeatedly. "Oi…"

His hands curled into fists. Son of the devil, indeed.

"Quit it."

He thought he had answered that question, if he deserved to exist. The answer became ambiguous once more. He felt like everyone else would be better off if he was dead.

"Seriously!" Ace was roughly shaken by the shoulders. His other self looked at him in the eye, their faces pressed close to each other.

"Listen to me," he commanded. Ace only stared back blankly.

"Think of it this way. You're obviously not dead, because you're clearly alive and breathing at this moment. Somehow you were transported to this dimension instead of dying from your wounds."

A numb nod.

"All we have to do is find a way to reverse what had happened and we'll send you back to your own world."

It took a full minute for Ace to fully register his other self's words. As they finally sunk in his mind, he jumped up in excitement and nearly sent his double toppling over. "You're right!" he exclaimed. He had actually never thought about it that way. Some part of his mind had believed he was maybe just a ghost, or maybe it was some twisted version of Heaven.

Mafia Ace sighed. "You can be awfully dense," he remarked.

Ace raised an eyebrow. "You know you're also insulting yourself, right?"

"… I do realize that."

An awkward moment of silence passed, then Ace heard a tune coming from his other self's… pocket? It was a catchy little tune, and he found himself humming along with it. His other self reached inside and pulled out a thin, black rectangle that was playing the song.

"What the heck is that?" he questioned. He had never ever seen anything like that in his entire life.

"That's a phone. Do you people not have these?" Mafia Ace waved said object in front of his nose. He saw that it was vibrating as well, with two buttons showing up on the screen, one green, one red.

"A phone? Like a den den mushi?" Those things were apparently used for communication, and the only thing they really had were the useful snails equipped with some other stuff Ace never bothered to find out about.

"A den den- what? You mean those snails you guys use?"

"Uh… yeah…" Now that his other self had pointed out, Ace realized just how weird it was to use those little shell creatures for communication. And they could make all kinds of faces that corresponded with the speaker, which was pretty amusing when he thought about it.

Mafia Ace had picked up his phone and was enthusiastically talking into his iPhone, until-

_THUNK!_

… Holy shit…

Pirate Ace stared in horror as his double had just fallen unceremoniously over on his face and began snoring loudly, the phone slipping out of his hands and landing on the ground in synchronization with him. It seemed that narcolepsy had kicked in, at a very awkward timing, as well. He panicked briefly, wondering what to do next. Should he reach for the phone? Or just hang up and pretend that the call had broken off? But he didn't even know how to hang up the weird thing.

Taking a breath, he took the phone and pressed it to his ear, like his mafia self had done. "Hey, sorry about that. My hand slipped and the phone fell," he lied smoothly to whoever was on the other side.

"It's alright, yoi," said easily an all too familiar voice.

Ace breathed in relief, glad that this was Marco he was talking to and not someone he might not be familiar with. He'd at least sort of know what to say without messing up and revealing the fact that he didn't exactly know how his own life went. "So, what were you saying just now? Didn't manage to catch it."

"Nothing really. Just makin' sure that you're doing well. Pops doesn't want you to work for another week or so. Wants you to rest up more, yoi."

Work. Ace took a wild guess into thinking that work meant mafia work. He knew that he would complain. "Why?! I'm perfectly fine! I sound fine to you, don't I?" he said in a protesting tone.

There was a sigh on the other end. "Fine," Marco gave in. "Then I'll be in your apartment in a few to brief you."

Now he wasn't expecting that. "Erm, alright," he responded, mind racing fast. What was he going to do? It was so not a good idea to have Marco come in at this time, when he didn't know when his other self was going to wake up from his narcoleptic spell. It was going to cause a lot of unwanted questions if he saw the two of them.

The only solution was for Ace to pretend to be his double. Grumbling under his breath about how bad a timing it was for the stupid disorder to hit, he dragged Mafia Ace roughly across the floor and into his bedroom. Flipping through the wardrobe, he changed into what his other self would wear on a daily basis, tossing his own away. They were pretty tattered anyways from prison and war, so he might as well throw them away. He hoped that his other self won't mind.

Rushing back to the living room, he took a few deep breaths and composed himself, hoping his acting skills were good enough to fool his double's best friend. And one always knew it was hard to fool your best friend.

The doorbell rang shortly. Ace got up and walked towards the door, trying to calm his frantic brain. The door swung open to reveal a man with balding yellow hair that stuck up in spikes. He smiled. "Hey. How's everything goin', yoi?"

Ace forced a grin and said, "Everything's fine. Just still a little tired from getting out of the hospital, I guess. So, er, come in." He gestured towards the empty living room.

As the duo settled down onto the two couches, he briefly went through all the stuff a person would usually do or say when they invited someone to their home. He never really had to go through those friend visits, because he spent most of his life with bandits where no one ever visited, and the Moby Dick, where no one would visit as well, because everyone lived together.

"Want something to eat?" he offered. Of course, there came the downside of finding an empty pantry and refrigerator, or not knowing where everything was. It was a chance he had to take.

"Nah," Marco said. "I just had breakfast awhile ago."

Thank goodness. So fate didn't hate him _that _much yet, apparently. "So er, the briefing. What are we doing tonight?"

"There's nothing much." Marco leaned back onto the couch. "We're just doing a patrol to make sure Kaido's not up to something fishy. He's been quiet a little too long for the old man's tastes." He ran a hand through his hair.

Of course. Things like that had happened back in his world, but it was too hard to do a full round around their territory. It was too vast, and traveling on the ocean was slow. He guessed that technology here were more advanced than theirs, or that their world was too crazy. "Sounds simple."

"It is. But Pops wants us to be careful anyways. We don't know what Kaido could be thinking, yoi."

"You know, he might've fighting against Shanks for all we know."

"Possible. However, we would've heard, don't you think, yoi?"

The conversation continued with fighting strategies and all sorts of hypothesizes. Ace was having fun chatting with his best friend, even if he was from the other world. Everything was flowing better than he had hoped. The only thing that bothered him was when his other self would wake up. Hopefully it'll be one of those long episodes, so he'll wake up after Marco had left, to avoid any questions.

But as always, things never worked out the way Ace would like to, because right at that instant, a loud yell sounded across the apartment. "What the hell, Ace?!"

Marco got up, surprised and wary. No one other than the two of them should be in the house. He shot a look at Ace, who had paled and was sweating bullets.

Ace began panicking for the third time in an hour, trying to figure out what to do next. Obviously, his other self had woken up, and Marco had heard him. _Crap! What am I going to do?_

Things got even worse when his double had decided to step out of the bedroom with an annoyed expression, then stopping in mid step to take in the scene in front of him. "Shit!" his other self cursed, realizing what he just did.

_Just spiffily fantabulous_. _He just _had_ walk into a scene like this, _Pirate Ace irritably. It was when everything was going so well, too! "I can explain," they said simultaneously.

Then they glared at each other. "Stop copying me, you-"

"Will you quit -"

"Stop saying what I'm-"

The duo shut their mouths completely and crossed their arms irately, deciding to refrain from talking altogether.

Marco was, to put it lightly, perplexed, as he studied the two Aces bicker. He didn't know what was going on except the fact that there were now two of his best friend, and currently they were giving each other the cold shoulder. "I'd really like to know what's going on," he said.

Both of them leaned against the wall and sighed. "Alright, we'll explain," they muttered wearily.

"Please."

* * *

**I'm terribly sorry for the late update, but life decided to screw with me. So homework and personal issues combined had left me no time (and in no mood) to write. This chapter was so meh in my opinion. x_x I have rewritten it again and again, then looked over it repeatedly, but I just didn't like the way it turned out, even now. However, I hope you all will enjoy it. **

**No promises on the next update, other than the fact that it shouldn't take as long as this time. Please review! I'll give you a sugar cookie! XD And it motivates me to write faster. ;) **


	5. Two Aces

**The standard disclaimer of I do not own One Piece. I also don't own Harry Potter or Hunger Games, as I mentioned them briefly in the chapter. A warning to readers who are currently reading the latter series: There are spoilers in this chapter regarding it.**

* * *

Marco stood there, speechless. Once again, the two Aces had begun to argue and yell like twins who hated each other. They were glaring at each other with fists clenched, as if about to break into a physical fight at any moment. He was still very confused, trying to figure out which Ace was his real best friend… not that the other was fake. It was impossible. They looked and sounded exactly the same. Finally, he was just fed up with the entire puzzling thing that was causing a _lovely _headache and screamed, "STOP IT YOU TWO!"

The shout had an immediate response. The two froze in mid movement and turned to him with sheepish expressions, scared by his sudden anger outburst and death glare.

As if one Ace wasn't enough, now there was two of that idiot.

Marco wasn't exactly sure what he was about to say, though. The first commander went through many different questions that had raced through his mind, finally settling on one. "Which one of you is my best friend? The real one." Perhaps that wasn't the best phrasing, but it got the point across. At least, it should've.

"Him." "Me." They spoke in unison, one pointing at the other, who pointed to himself.

Marco spent a quick moment studying the one on the left, judged as the Ace that he knew. It frustrated him to see that there was just no difference between those two, other than the clothing. But even the style was the same… just… ARGH!

"Alright!" he said snappily, the anger getting the best of him. "You-" he pointed at the 'real' Ace, "will be called Ace, while you-" he pointed to the other, "will be called Portgas from now on. I'm getting so damn confused over who's who, yoi." It wasn't a time to be creative, so he just left it to that. Though he was sure if those two switched positions a couple of times, he wouldn't be able to tell who's who.

There was a smug expression on Ace's face, while Portgas looked like he was about to argue, until another glare from Marco silenced him. "Now," he continued, his voice calmer than before, "I'd really like to know what's going on right here, yoi." The weird situation with two copies of his best friend still remained unresolved. He definitely hoped it wasn't some weird experiment gone wrong that caused him to clone himself.

"It all began with my coma. I had a really strange dream," Ace started, "and it was about me. But a different me, because I was in a different world altogether. This me was a pirate instead of being part of the mafia, but with pretty much the same childhood. However, things began to differ when Thatch was killed in that universe because I decided to go after that bastard instead of listening to the old man instead." He winced, some part of the dream probably disturbing him. "There was a lot of crap like me getting my ass handed by Teach, sent to prison, and having a huge war formed just to save me from execution."

Marco cringed as well. He inferred that what Ace had dreamed of was what happened to Portgas, and from the way his best friend's other self was looking down on the floor and biting his lip, that was probably the case. He was glad this didn't happen in their world.

"And meanwhile I was having visions of myself, as well, after I had died a horrible death of getting punched through the chest to save my little brother. These visions were also in a different world, so I didn't get what was going on," Portgas added. "I saw my childhood, but it was different. And the world was weird, with some strange technology and tablet things used instead of den den mushis.

Den den mushis? Marco didn't know what they were. They were obviously an alternate form of communication.

"However, when Thatch was killed, I didn't go after Teach for some reason. I had listened to Pops. Life went on like usual, no shitty prisons or battles. I remember facing off ... Big Mam's army, I think, and then getting shot a couple of times before blacking out. Then at some point I woke up, finding myself in an alley. Some random drunkards who said they came from the Bentan famiglia or whatever attacked me. I beat them up and wounded up walking past my other self's apartment. Erm, which is to say, Ace's apartment. At that point I didn't remember anything. There was this huge blank in my memory."

"I just saw him while I was out at the balcony and rushed downstairs because I recognized myself- er, Portgas, as the person from my dream."

"He randomly yelled at me and dragged me into the building."

"I had a reason! Apparently he didn't know what happened to him other than waking up in the alley so-"

"He told me that I died. Well it was more like I asked. The memory started coming back afterwards."

"And the idiot fell into a little depression. I managed to snap him out of it."

"Hey! But yeah, then you called and then he just _had _to pick that moment to fall asleep so I had to cover for him."

"That's unfair! I can't control the goddamn narcolepsy!" Once again, the duo had turned around to glare at each other. Marco pinched the bridge of his nose to stop himself from getting furious all over again at their tendency to argue. At least he somewhat understood how there were two Aces, but it didn't make sense, because it was strange for Portgas to just pop from one world to another, with the fact that he had supposedly died in the other.

He cleared his throat, looking sharply at the two. They quickly stopped their little squabble. "That doesn't explain why er… Portgas… is here though." Damn, he really needed to get better names.

"We don't know either," they said together, shrugging. Marco couldn't help but be a tad bit freaked out by their movements. Nearly everything they did was harmonized.

Hmmm… "I have to warn you two though," he said. "Everything always happens for a reason. Portgas is brought here alive for a reason, and so there has to be some ulterior movement beyond what we see right now, and so we have to be careful about that, yoi."

It took some time for those words to sink into Ace and Portgas. What he said probably was true, even if it was border lining spiritual beliefs. It wasn't possible for the latter to just pop in this universe because of the reason "just because." The two most possible scenarios were that there was something that occurred, which caused a dimensional split of some sort that sent Portgas to Ace's world. The other possibility was, like Marco said, some ulterior movement, part of a bigger picture that required him here.

"Fate, why must you love to screw around with me so much?" Portgas complained, plopping back onto the couch. "As if dying isn't enough, it decides to send me into another world. When will this insanity end?" He envied his other self.

"We can only wait and see," Ace replied, walking over to the couch as well. "Now Marco, where were we before all this started? What's tonight's mission about?"

* * *

Somewhere far away from the little apartment that sat in a poorer district of East Blue, a group of men were conversing quietly. What they were saying, the writer never figured out, but the topic was something that was evil, something unspeakable that involved wars and murders.

They were a dangerous group, but had no bounties. No one knew about them and those who had skirmishes with the group disappeared and was never heard from again.

Their leader, a big man with long, unkempt hair and a few missing teeth laughed heartily at one of their comments, while taking a large bite out of a piece of pie he was holding.

History was about to repeat itself, though under different circumstances.

Unless, of course, if it was stopped.

* * *

"Do you cook?" Ace's question popped out of nowhere and startled his other self. After Marco had left after explaining the details of what he'll be doing, the house lapsed in silence. Portgas, out of boredom, had looked around the apartment, settling for a book from Ace's library.

"Uhh…" The question did take him off guard. He had never found a need to cook, as Dadan took care of everything, and there were cooks back on Whitebeard's ship. He never had any time to prepare something more complicated when he was doing solo missions, as well. "I never tried."

"Oh." So there were minor differences here and there, then, between the two of them.

"What, you cook?"

"… Yeah… There had to be someone who could make decent stuff after all. It was almost always just me and Luffy. Garp and Shanks visited from time to time, and so did Makino."

"Ahh…"

Ace's attempt to start a conversation failed as it died quickly. "So uhh," he started again, "do you pillage and kill people for fun as a pirate?"

Portgas looked up from his book with an odd expression. "Oi," he said, his voice filled with incredulity, "didn't you see? I'm not exactly the typical pirate who does everything just for treasure."

"Right…" Ace had forgotten. Many pirates in his other self's world were different than the standard definition of pirates, which according to Merriam-Webster, was one who commits or practices an act of robbery on the high seas. They valued nakama more than treasure, and treated their fellow crewmates as family. The point of being a pirate in their world was to have limitless freedom, free from the corrupt government, even if it meant being shunned by society in general and treated as an outcast. "The mafia system works like your pirate system does," he remarked.

"I saw," was the reply. "The difference is that we don't have to hide anything we do, nor do we have to hide our true identities. But it seems for your case that everything you do needs to be covered up and you can't walk down the street declaring you're part of the mafia like we do. And you usually don't even know the true names or clear faces of other gangs. Isn't that annoying?"

"Yeah, it is," Ace agreed, "You have no idea. I spend most of my time on missions trying to not let the fire get out of control. It gets real annoying."

Portgas sighed. "Maybe I should learn your self-restraint. I burned down who knows how many places by accident."

"Ah well," Ace said, "I would've done that if Pops wasn't so anal about being secretive and all that crap."

"Oh really? Pops told me I was free to use his name and cause whatever chaos I wanted when he asked me to become one of his sons. How strange."

"Lucky! He sort of said that to me, except he also said I was responsible for my own messes."

Portgas snickered. "Looks like you had it tougher than I had."

"No shit, Sherlock!"

There was a moment of silence, then his pirate self suddenly said, "Hey, is Peeta going to die?"

The plastic cup Ace was just holding to drink some water dropped from his hands and fell on the floor, its contents spilling all over the floor. Thank goodness it was just a plastic cup and some water, otherwise he'd have a hell of a fun time cleaning the mess up. Ace finally managed to take a long, good look at the book his double was reading. "You're reading Hunger Games?!" he shrieked out. Out of all the books he had, why _that _one?

"What's wrong with it?" Portgas replied, confused. "It seemed pretty interesting with the games and all. From the summary, at least." It sounded like a promising novel, so that was why he picked it up. He didn't understand what the reaction was about.

"No it's just… I didn't think you would read something like that," Ace tried to explain.

His other self gave him a funny look. "Then why did you buy it? Obviously Luffy doesn't read."

That was a very good question. "I don't know. But it gets pretty in the end, and there's a lot of triangle romance in it. Then the main character's pretty much always in a heavy depression by the third book."

Portgas's eyes went wide. He gently set the book down and pushed it away from him like it was a dangerous disease. "You're right. I think I'm done with it."

"Told you so. Oh and for the record, there's going to be some cheesy crap so Peeta doesn't die. I'm just saying," Ace added offhandedly. He didn't have anything against the Hunger Games series and had originally read it because of the summary. He had expected some more violence and fighting than romance, and the last book was almost entirely focused on a romantic aspect, something he wasn't a big fan of.

"For some reason I'm not very surprised."

"I would think so."

"Any other things I could read, then?" Portgas got up from his position on the couch and stood up, stretching from being in that position for so long.

Ace thought for a moment, going through all the books he knew he owned. He really wasn't sure about what kind of books his other self would be interested. From the past hours he had spent with him, it was beginning to show that the two of them may not be carbon copies of each other. They did some things differently, even if it was just a small difference, really. It was just the general behavior and look that was the same. "Well," he said slowly, "I _think_ Harry Potter would interest you, but I'm not that sure."

"What's it about?" Portgas walked over to his double, peering over his shoulder to see what he was doing. From what it looked like, he was preparing some kind of roasted chicken thing for lunch.

"There's this kid who lived in a miserable childhood, and he has this weird lightning scar on his forehead. His aunt and uncle treat him badly, and he's got a spoiled cousin. Life's horrible for him, until one day he receives a letter. Stuff happens, but he eventually gets to read it and finds out that he's actually a wizard. It's pretty good, one of the bestselling series in the world over here." Ace chopped up green onions as he spoke.

… "I think I'm going to stop reading. You guys have a lot of weird stuff," Portgas finally said.

"Says the guy who uses snails as communication," the other retorted.

"So? You guys use- I'm not going to argue about that with you again."

"Whatever. Could you tell me what time it is now?"

"It's ummm," Portgas looked around, searching for a clock. "It's 11:45 now."

"Goody." Ace lifted up the baking pan and pulled down the oven cover, shoving it on the top. He closed the door and tweaked a few dials, then dusted his hands off. "Should be done in half an hour or so."

Portgas resisted the urge to drool. His other self really knew how to cook! Better than he did, at least… and a question popped up in his head, a very important one. "Hey, what are we going to do when Luffy comes back?"

"I don't know," Ace replied breezily, giving the soup he was cooking a gentle stir. "We'll have it figured out before then. I'm thinking about hiding you in an inn or something."

The other shrugged. "Sure. Or I could just camp out in the woods or something, or somewhere in a random alley-"

"Both options are out," Ace replied curtly, cutting him off. "We don't really have woods around this area, and sleeping in a dark lane in the middle of the night is a definite no-no. It's the equivalent of sleeping on a little raft out in the middle of the ocean when there are dangerous pirates swarming in that area."

Portgas shuddered. There were two bad experiences where he had done exactly what his double had just said, and they never ended well. The first time nearly got him killed. The pirates had tried to kill him in his sleep then loot him (even though he didn't have anything valuable at the time), and when they realized he didn't have anything, they tried to knock him out and sell him on the human auction. The second time he had been much more powerful and acquired the Mera Mera no Mi, so it didn't take long before he took those people out and stole their ship. "Yeah, maybe an inn sounds like a better idea," he admitted weakly.

"See," Ace replied in a superior and all-knowing voice. "And there's the golden rule of 'lying low' here, so you'll just screw yourself up even more than you already have. Technically East Blue is the weakest district out of all four, but these days some people have been rising up. Namely, our little brother. He's already extended his power to Grand Line."

Portgas didn't exactly understand how things in the mafia worked. From what it seemed, the four oceans became four different districts that people lived in instead, and the Grand Line was an equivalent of the center city. Beyond it, the New World, was a place nearly completely inhabitable other than occasional small cities and towns, due to the fact that it was divided up between the Yonkou and other extremely powerful gangs that dominated the area, much like his old world. However, before he could think of anything in reply, the doorbell rang. And of course, the two of them panicked.

"Oh wait, I have the key," came a muffled voice. An all too familiar muffled voice. The teen laughed at himself before inserting the key into the keyhole. A click was heard, and the doorknob was twisted. Stepping into the apartment was Monkey D. Luffy.

"I'm back!" he called out, then tilted his head in confusion when he noticed something very strange. For some reason, there were two copies of his brother. Since when did Ace get a clone or a twin? "Eh?"

They were completely frozen.

"Ummm… Why do I have two brothers now?" he asked in an innocent voice.

A moment of silence, then-

"What the hell!?" both of the shouted out.

It was safe to say that fate hated Ace. All versions of him.

* * *

**Well that's certainly a bad place to leave off. I wanted to have this chapter more light hearted and funny, because there will probably be darker things later as the plot thickens. I hope you enjoyed it. Now that mysterious short part… pretty sure everyone can guess who the group was, and what I was referring to. And yes, there was a brief breaking-the-fourth-wall moment in there. **

**Review, anyone? I'll give out cupcakes this time! Or for the more perverse people, an Ace full body pillow. :3 Full body pillows are awesome. I'm just saying. **

***cough* Anyways, I bid you ja ne~ See you next time!**

**P.S. I love the Hunger Games and watched the movie twice, but there are a few parts and aspects that I'm rather picky about. In no way or form was I bashing on the romance or hating on it. Please do not flame me and stop reading because of that. It's a very stupid reason to do so.**


	6. Redhaired Shanks

**Disclaimer: I don't even know why I'm putting this. Isn't it obvious I don't own One Piece?**

* * *

A certain freckled former pirate sighed in frustration as he lounged on a random wooden bench. It was afternoon, and he didn't have a clue of how the city worked, so he ended up killing time in a large park. People strolled passed, paying no heed to him. To them, he was another one of those good for nothing teenagers skipping class. How did he come up with that conclusion? Portgas had overheard two old ladies chatting.

"Kids these days," one of them said in disgust, "skipping class and acting like delinquents."

"I wonder if his parents knew what he was doing. I would certainly give him a good spankin'!" the other added with a hint of spite in her tone.

Portgas resisted a strong urge to roll his eyes. He _wished _he had parents that cared for him. Nope! One of them died giving birth to him, and the other was executed. No one could complain if he was a little less than decent. The two old ladies walked on, giving him the evil eye every now and then before they finally disappeared from his line of view.

He sighed again, feeling bored. There was absolutely nothing to do here other than sit and wait, unless he wanted to pick fights with random people. But nooooo! His other self had clearly instructed, "Don't make a scene _in any circumstances_!"

He tilted down his orange baseball cap to cover his eyes, protecting it from the sharp sun rays. Searching around his jean pocket, he pulled out a black iPhone, tapping the button at the top to check the time. According to it, he's already been out here for the past two hours, and there was simply no news from Ace. "Bah…" he muttered sullenly, "Curse my luck…"

So how did it all start? Let us turn back in time…

…

_A good half an hour of a plethora of explanations and stupid questions later, Luffy was finally satisfied with the strange matter of having two brothers. "I guess I'm perfectly fine with it," he commented while leisurely picking at his nose. It was like he had just switched personalities again, going back to the usual I-don't-really-care-as-long-as-I-have-meat attitude._

_The Aces let out audible sighs of relief. Thank goodness it was over. It had felt like they were just subjected to heavy questioning from authorities, from the way Luffy had acted, insisting on knowing every single detail. Ace was very tempted to ask who this Luffy lookalike was and where did the real Luffy go. _

_However now, he had reverted to his old self, not paying attention at all and looking out in a random general direction for… whatever it was. The apartment fell into an awkward silence, as the older two didn't know what they should say. The attitude change was all very sudden. _

_The silence was broken when Luffy suddenly spoke up again. "Oh yeah! Shanks is coming over later," he said in a nonchalant tone. _

_A vein throbbed in Portgas's forehead. "Why the hell didn't you say that earlier!?" he yelled. Funnily enough, his other self had screamed out the same thing at the same time again. _

_The straw hat teen went on picking his nose like nothing was up. "What?" he asked innocently. "He's coming over in like… two hours. That's in a very long time, so I don't see why we should worry."_

_Portgas resisted a very strong urge to bury his fist in the younger's face. "No, it's not," he said. "That's 120 minutes, which means I've only got that long to get the hell out of this place and pretend to be someone else before Shanks find us like this. That's barely enough time to think up something decent."_

"_Exactly," Ace agreed. "Two people are more than enough. I would prefer to keep this quiet until we can solve the problem."_

"_Why?" Luffy questioned. _

"_No why!" they yelled. Sometimes their little brother could be so awfully dense. _

_The younger shrugged, then proceeded to waltz into his room, ignoring their heated glares. Did he honestly just… _

"_That kid," Ace growled. "We'll focus on him later. Gotta think up something for you first." He rubbed his temples, an irritated expression still lingering on his face. _

"_I could just wander around the city and hope to not cause trouble," Portgas offered airily. Where he would go didn't matter. He adapted well to different environments, so he was pretty sure he could pull off walking down the streets. _

_Ace twitched. "That's not going to work. People will recognize you as me, and then more crap will ensue."_

"_Then? Surely I can't hide in a closet for hours, can I?" _

"_Hahaha, very funny. No, I was thinking about disguises."_

_Portgas stiffened, wondering what his other self was thinking right now. Hopefully they didn't involve him dressing up as a girl or anything as horrible as that. _

_Noticing his expression, Ace added, "Don't worry. It's just something simple."_

"_If you say so…" he said hesitantly. Suddenly, he felt a tug on his collar, and before he could jerk away, his other self had dragged him into his room just like earlier in the morning, ignoring his protests. Ace proceeded to raid his walk-in closet, occasionally tossing some clothes out with uncanny accuracy so they hit the bed, and sometimes Portgas's face. He stared at those clothes, horrified. What the heck, no, _how _the heck did he even get his hands on that kind of clothing? Was that… some kind of goth or punk clothing? And was that... leather… stuff… _

_As if reading his mind, the muffled voice of Ace came through, "I went through a phase a few years back, and later this stuff was just for disguises. It was easier to blend in when you pretended to be a rebellious teen at night." _

_Portgas snorted. "You're more or less one, aren't you?" he remarked snidely. _

"_You're one to talk. I'm sure that every kid runs off to become a pirate as soon as he hits 17," Ace retorted. Two shirts came hurtling towards Portgas's face, who's fast reflexes prevented them from hitting him just in time. He examined them, finding the clothing to be more acceptable than the previous. _

"_Shut up."_

_Another small packet flew towards him, and he barely caught it before it slammed into his face. It was a small translucent pack of black hair bands. "What are these for?" he asked suspiciously._

"_To tie your hair up," was the cheerful reply. Ace emerged from his closet and surveyed his messy room. "Hmmm…"_

_Portgas gulped nervously. He felt like he was the victim of some creepy dress up game, not knowing what the "player" was thinking. Goodness. To his relief, his other self pulled out the more modest clothing, an orange baseball cap, a black short sleeved hoodie, and a pair of dark blue jeans that looked very scruffy. "Umm…" He pointed to them. _

"_Knife fight some time ago."_

"_Oh…" _

"_Now… Hmmmm…" Ace mused. "You'll need a sash of some sort to cover up the ASCE tattoo." He bent down to pick up a piece of clothing that had fallen off the bed. "Perfect! Now change."_

_Portgas, feeling very self-conscious, quickly stripped his shirt and pants. After a moment of hesitation, he slipped on the new clothes, still feeling uncomfortable. He fumbled with the maroon sash; the silky material kept slipping from his fingers as he tried to keep around his arm. _

_Ace chuckled, then walked over and wrapped it around twice, fastening it with a tight knot. "There." He smirked._

_Portgas's face heated up in embarrassment, cheeks tinted with red. He silently cursed the stupid thing. Stupid, stupid, stupid! He took out a hair band, tying a small pony tail, then put the cap on, adjusting it slightly. "There," he said, "Satisfied?"_

_Ace whistled. "Yeah." He walked over, tilting the cap downwards so it hid Portgas's eyes. A grin spread across his face. _

…

Portgas sat up, suddenly remembering something, and rummaging around the watermelon drawstring bag, flipping out a package covered with tinfoil. Carefully peeling away the aluminum away, he drooled over the items inside. Several triangular onigiris sat, wrapped carefully with pieces of seaweed. Sesame seeds were sprinkled on top. In his haste to get out of the house, he didn't get a chance to eat anything, but it seemed like Ace had remembered the little fact.

He heaved another heavy sigh. All he could do now was to wait. Drat.

* * *

Guilt was settling in a good two hours later. Ace felt bad for kicking Portgas out of the house like that and hoped that the onigiri he made would make up for it. Oh well, he'll just apologize or something later, when this was over. Meanwhile, his little brother had emerged from his room and was currently jumping around the house like a monkey. He was clearly very excited that Shanks was going to visit them. Over the years, he became somewhat of a surrogate father, albeit a very drunk and irresponsible one, as they never had any parent figures saved Makino.

It was from Shanks that Luffy had learned about the underground system of syndicates and illegal trading. He was the one who inspired Luffy to form a gang himself. That was around the same time Ace had found out Shanks was the famous Red-Hair, one of the leading four mafia groups.

Thinking back now, Ace found that he was rather stupid to not make the connection between Straw Hat and Luffy, with the blaringly obvious fact that they both had straw hats and came from East Blue. That and the younger had been obsessed with being part of the mafia ever since the two had met.

Well, he was also surprised that Luffy didn't find out that he was Fire Fist. The clues were there, and just as obvious as in his brother's case, but he just didn't make the connection. Shanks also knew that Ace was Fire Fist due to the time he had visited him to surprise him, back when Ace was still part of the Spade famigila.

All of this mafia secret identity business was rather confusing. He decided to stop thinking about them before he formed a headache.

"When do you think Shanks will come?" Luffy called out while bouncing up and down on the sofa.

"Aren't you the one who should know the answer?" Ace replied. Idiot brother.

"Oh yeah!" the teen said, laughing at himself.

Then the doorbell rang. Speak of the devil.

"He's heeeeeereeeeeeee!" And with that, Luffy's hands shot across the room in all of its rubbery glory, wounding them around the door knob.

"No, don-" Too late. The younger had already released and crashed into the door with a loud slam, briefly flattening him before he popped back into his usual shape. He was lucky this time. Normally the door would collapse or receive a large hole, so they'd have to replace it. He laughed at himself, then opened the door. "Hi Shanks!" he said cheerfully with a large grin.

Standing at the doorway was a mid aged red-haired man. Three scars ran across his right eye diagonally, a glaring feature. The right sleeve also hung emptily, showcasing the missing limb. "Hey Luffy," he replied with the same amount of enthusiasm, taking a large gulp from the rum bottle he was carrying. He stepped into the apartment. "Hello, Ace."

"Hey," Ace responded, smiling slightly. "Glad to have you here."

Shanks and Luffy both settled down on the couch next to Ace. The former took another swig from his bottle, which was nearly empty. He frowned, swishing it. "It's being awhile, huh? Luffy, I heard you got a higher b- I mean to say, a higher score on your math test than your last."

Ace snickered. Shanks was never great at keeping secrets, especially if he was a little drunk. Ace knew that the older man had meant to say "bounty". "You sure you didn't mean to say 'bounty', Shanks? 'Cause Luffy got 47% on the last test, even worse than the previous."

"Eh? You know?" Shanks said in a surprised and puzzled tone. "Luffy, you told him? Wait, I thought you didn't know Ace was also part of the- what? What's going on here?"

Ace snickered. "I found out last night."

"Yeah he did," Luffy admitted. "And I thought I did a good job keeping it a secret, too!"

"… A little too much for my old head to process…"

The younger two broke into laughter, and Shanks followed in suit. They were a silly bunch. After several moments of random laughter, the three finally managed to compose themselves again.

"So," Shanks began, "Your old man and I are going to have a meeting tonight. You know what he wants to talk about?"

"No idea," Ace said truthfully. He honestly didn't have a single clue.

"Maybe he wants more meat?" Luffy suggested.

A vein pulsed in Ace's forehead. "No, Luffy. Not everyone has their mind stuck in the permanent thought of 'more meat' like you do."

Luffy pouted at his words. "You're so mean, Ace!" he whined.

"Deal with it," Ace said, annoyed. He stuck out his tongue childishly.

"Back to topic!" Shanks interrupted quickly before they burst into a full argument like the little children they were, at least in his opinion, anyways. "If there's nothing of great importance I might want to call it off. God knows what might happen if the government caught wind of it. I already had to stop two platoons last night, because apparently there were rumors of the fact that Whitebeard and I are going to meet up already. Word sure travels fast."

"I might have trouble going there too. I don't know if the Sunny reaches there," Luffy added.

…

… Wait. Rewind. "What?!" Ace leapt up from the couch. "What do you mean 'you also have trouble going there'? I don't recall you being invited!"

"I invited him," Shanks cut in smoothly before Ace had the chance to attempt to knock some sense into his younger brother, which was very likely to happen. And then they'll end up destroying the apartment, which was not a favorable outcome.

"Why?" Ace questioned, incredulous. He couldn't see how Whitebeard and Luffy connected.

"Because," the older man began, "I thought it was a good idea for Luffy to get to know the Yonkou. That is, the more, how should I put this, gentle and nicer ones. I would be one, and Whitebeard is another. Would you rather shove him in a battle with Kaidou or Big Mam? It will give him more experience and would help his famigila."

"I still don't see how," Ace muttered, unable to see Shanks's logic. "Shanks, don't push your luck. Your relation with the old man isn't that great, and I will think it's going to fray even more if you bring a group of unwanted strangers."

"Well," Luffy commented, "Since Ace respects _hige oyaji _so much, he's gotta be a good person, right?"

Ace smiled faintly, happy that his little brother put so much faith in him. It was cute, in a way. "Fine," he gave in, "I'll allow you to come along."

Luffy cheered, while Shanks snickered. "You don't have the power to stop him even if he wanted to go, anyways," he teased.

Ace twitched. As much as he hated to admit, that was true. "Luffy, during the meeting, please keep quiet for all things holy. And act mature and serious. Really."

"Meh," was the uncaring response. Ace could only hope Luffy had listened.

He sat back down, curling up into a ball; his mind was absorbed in different scenarios if something went wrong tonight. None of them had a happy ending and always involved the building to be destroyed, attracting the notice of the local police, then notifying the government, which lead to an all out battle between different sides. He tuned out the voices of Shanks and Luffy as they chatted animatedly about … something. Ace grimaced as his thoughts turned worse and worse. The perfect situation was one where both sides managed to converse in a more or less composed and gentlemanly fashion, ending with no fights or government involvement. But he might as well dream for that to happen.

A strange thought then occurred. "Shanks, would you mind if I brought a friend?" It wasn't a good idea to leave Portgas around the house, and he would have something to do, in return for wandering around the city for a few hours.

"I wouldn't mind," the red-haired man answered, shrugging. "Just as long he isn't an evil person or anything. And you know, the usual stuff."

"I know him as well as myself. I doubt he'll do anything other than sit there and listen," Ace said.

"Oh!" Luffy exclaimed, "You mean-"

Ace sent a sharp glare to his little brother's direction. The meaning was clear enough: shut up. That did the job.

Shanks raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "Who might this be?"

"No one." Then, Ace's phone rang. Saved! He took a quick glance to see who it was, before dashing out the front door to pick up the call.

"Hey, Portgas," he greeted cheerfully, "how's everything going?"

The voice on the other end of the line did not sound happy. "Lied on a bench in a park for a while, then the police briefly arrested me because they thought I had stolen something, while the real thief ran right past them, and they apologized. But later they came back again and claimed they had smelled weed on me. I don't even know what the hell that thing is! They searched me for it and were really suspicious because I kept fidgeting, which they claimed to be my frickin' guilty conscience. The last encounter I had with marines was _obviously not happy_! And after a long time of searching they let me go. Idiots, them all!" Portgas positively seethed with fury.

Ace was caught between sympathizing with his other self and laughing at him. "Well, I got some news that'll hopefully cheer you up!" he said, fighting back laughter.

"What?" His other self sounded suspicious.

"You're coming with me tonight to the meeting between the old man and Shanks."

* * *

**Done! At last! So a lot of you are probably asking why I put Shanks as a father figure to Luffy and Ace! The answer to that is because I thought they needed one. In a society like this, it's pretty impossible to survive without someone like that. He's more or less their guardian. Think of it this way. The world I have created for Mafia Ace is very similar to our own. You can't just have two young kids living by themselves. Obviously there are those cases, but those poor kids live on the streets, which was not the case for Ace and Luffy. You need a solid adult figure. Garp is obviously out of the question (child abuse ._.), and so I thought Shanks would be a perfect character. **

**So… I'm sorry for not responding to anyone who reviewed the previous chapter! So very sorry! I haven't had the time. **

**Anyways, review please! :D You get another cookie. XD**


	7. Meeting

**Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece! If I did, Ace wouldn't have died! *tears up again* T~T**

* * *

Somehow, Portgas and Ace wound back trying to choose something suitable for the former to wear again for the second time of the day. It was ridiculous. They somehow ended up arguing about what was decent and what was not. And supposedly, Portgas had to get rid of his boots and belt, as Ace deemed them as inappropriate for the meeting. It was something serious to have the two Yonko meet up, so he thought that his other self should look at least a bit presentable, not looking like a random hoodlum off the streets.

And of course, Portgas didn't exactly agree with his views. "Then what am I supposed to show up with, a nice suit and tie?" Portgas said sarcastically, crossing his arms in frustration.

"Ugh, no! It's just that I have the same kind of stuff you wear!" Ace replied, getting angry as well. "Gosh, can't you just listen?" Inwardly, he knew that his other self wasn't one to give in. They were both stubborn as heck when the time called for it.

"No. You know every well I'm not," Portgas said indifferently. "And I want to borrow the cowboy hat."

Ace scowled. "You're not getting anywhere close to that. It's too obvious. If you want something to cover your head so badly, keep the baseball cap I gave you. It's also orange."

"If only I get to keep the two necklaces and the belt," the pirate Ace bargained, unwilling to back down.

"One. No belt."

"Either that or I'm just going to go with what I want and not listen to you at all."

"Then you're not going at all."

"Fine. Just both necklaces."

"Fine."

They were glaring at each other now. It was a silent battle; who ever looked away first looses. And of course, a minute ticked pass with both of them unmoving and unblinking. Then, they both broke away the stare in synchronization and sighed. "I can't believe we're so childish," they stated at the same time.

"So as long as I keep the clothes you told me to, I get to keep my necklaces and boots, right?" Portgas asked.

"Yep," his other self verified, nodding. "That shouldn't give away too much, as it has being a long time since I wore them."

"Goody," Portgas replied happily, and went to the closet to hunt down the jewelry. He pulled them out triumphantly from one of the corners of the walk-in closet and put them on with a big grin. "I missed them."

Ace glanced at his watch, making sure they weren't going to run late. Luffy had gone out hours ago to meet up with his own gang, and Shanks. "You better put on the belt quickly," he warned. "It's already 11:30. We got half an hour to reach the place. It's all the way in the New World District, and we gotta go through the underground route, which takes longer. I didn't prepare any docs to go directly through the Red Line this time."

Portgas shrugged, bending down to pick up his belt and quickly strapping it on. "Done and ready to go," he said, adjusting the cap and flipping the hoodie over his head, so they could hide his eyes. The shadows would do the rest of the work in hiding his face.

Ace felt around his pocket, pulling out a little white bottle that rattled, with the label of Provigil. He shook out a few onto his palm and popped them in his mouth, swallowing them expertly without needing the aid of water. "Here," he said, tossing the bottle to his counterpart. "Take two of this, just in case."

Portgas caught it with ease and eyed it suspiciously. "What does it do?" he asked.

"You've never taken it before?" Ace was surprised.

"Nope," was the lofty answer.

"They're pills. It's provigil, used for keeping your narcolepsy under control. I take a few now and then, but sometimes I forget about it," Ace explained.

Portgas grimaced, but listened anyways. He took off to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water, popping two pills in his mouth as his other self had instructed, downing it with the water. "Bleh," he muttered, making a face. He hated drugs of all kinds. "Alright, let's get out of here," he called out, chucking the bottle back to Ace. "Let's hope this goes well."

"Let's hope," his counterpart agreed.

* * *

The first thing Portgas had registered when they arrived at the designated warehouse was that the atmosphere was very, very tense. And it looked as if it was abandoned, as the entire building was dark and empty. The dim yellow lights barely worked, flickering so it looked like strobe lights. He grimaced, averting his eyes away from them. Their footsteps echoed in the room loudly, drawing attention.

There were only fifteen other people in the vacant building, which Portgas recognized as Whitebeard and his other commanders. Thatch was noticeably missing from the group. He remembered that the man was also killed in the same way in this world as with his own. There were mutterings among the members of the Whitebeard Famiglia, and he felt many pairs of eyes staring at him and regarding his every move cautiously.

"Ace, is that-" Marco began in a curious tone.

Ace responded with a curt nod before he could continue, ignoring the inquisitive stares he was receiving, and then turned to his captain. "Oyaji," he said in a quiet voice, "I brought a close friend of mine here today. I hope you don't mind."

The most feared mafia member in the world smiled. "As long as he doesn't try to kill us! Gurarararara," he laughed, not alarmed at all.

Ace felt relieved, while Portgas adjusted his cap self-consciously, hoping that the shadows were enough to hide his whole face. And he hoped that no one would suddenly shine a flashlight in his face, or anything like that. That would be very stupid.

The mafia Ace walked to one of the corners and sat down on the hard cement, crossing his legs. He rubbed his eyes, trying to keep them open. Sadly, he didn't get as much sleep as he liked the day before, only four hours or so. He had planned on taking a short nap during the afternoon, but between the visits of Marco and Shanks, he just couldn't find the time.

Portgas chose to lean against the wall, eyes trained on the floor. He felt out of place and awkward, not knowing what to do. The others were still staring at him curiously like he was some kind of animal. Thankfully, as minutes ticked by slowly, the stares gradually left him and they resumed their hushed conversations. He knew that probably most of them were discussing him, and didn't dare to go near Ace, in case he got offended and lit them on fire.

Marco, however, was an exception, and he made his way over to the two. "What were you thinking?" he whispered in a low tone, so the other people wouldn't hear. They were all caught up in their own hushed conversations.

"I was bored," Portgas stated, while at the same time his other self said, "He was bored."

Marco twitched. "Bored," he repeated, his frustration thinly veiled. He could feel that special headache slowly forming, exclusive to a cheeky brat known as Portgas D. Ace.

"And I sort of know the future," Portgas added, before Marco decided to burst into all of his blue flamey phoenix glory. "I have a feeling about what's going to happen, because the same things _already happened before _back in my world. I want to prevent it." He bit his lip, trying to keep his tone down from being too emotional.

Ace's expression also turned grim as he remembered those unpleasant visions. But they shouldn't happen again here. Things had occurred differently, but the chances of the old man dying were still high, and he wanted to prevent that from happening no matter what he had to do. He was sure everyone else would feel the same.

Before the conversation could go on, however, the room was interrupted by the sound of loud footsteps.

The Red-Haired gang was here.

The members of the Whitebeard Famiglia tensed and abruptly ceased their conversations. Some even got into battle positions, preparing themselves in case the rival group had decided to attack all of a sudden. As unlikely as it was, it was best to be safe than sorry.

Shadows were what they saw first, due to the low lighting. Several of them.

Then the figure of Red Haired Shanks emerged, looking deadly with large black coat draped over his shoulders, and a large gun he held casually by his side. A sudden, strong blast of energy seemed to emit from him, nearly sending many falling over due to the sheer power. Portgas felt winded, as if someone just kicked him hard in the gut.

Ace's eyes narrowed. The Haoshoku Haki… He should've expected Shanks to do that. Then, a small part of his brain teased him for not being able to master that ability yet. Stupid brain.

Shanks's people fanned out behind him. Ace was surprised to see only four others, in contrast to his own family, which was nearly four times larger. The Whitebeard people visibly relaxed at the sight of so few people, but unbeknownst to them, a surprise awaited, something that Ace and Portgas knew of. The former now wondered if he should've warned his "father" about it beforehand.

"I've brought a few special guests," Shanks said in a relaxed voice, "if you don't mind."

On the cue, nine more silhouettes appeared, the owners completely shrouded by shadows. If possible, the atmosphere became more apprehensive than before by this new, unknown development. Who were those people?

Out of nowhere, a fist shot out at lightning speed from the dark, stretching unnaturally as it flew towards Ace. "Ace!" his comrades called out in alarm, taking a step towards him, trying to block the attack for him. Portgas snickered quietly as his counterpart dodged it easily by a simple sidestep. The fist crashed loudly into the wall, but snapped back with amazing force, like a rubber band.

"Awww," a childish voice exclaimed in disappointment.

"You'll never reach my level, idot!" Ace replied smugly, grinning widely, all the while ignoring the responses from his fellow commanders.

Nearly everyone's eyes popped out at this new, strange, development. Their beloved second commander had ties with another gang outside of the Whitebeard Famiglia? Just who could this mysterious group be? And how did this related with Shanks?

They got a clear look of the puzzling crew as they stepped forward.

The first was a boy in his late teens, with short messy black hair that a yellow straw hat covered. He had a large black jacket that covered him in the same way Shanks had, a suit with a red blouse and black tie underneath. There was a boyish grin on his face, and a small scar under his right eye. He was Straw Hat, one of the super rookies. By his side was an intimidating man with short, moss green hair, sharp features, and three gold earrings dangled from his ear. Three katanas were strapped to his side. A young woman stood by her leader, orange hair curling around her chin. She certainly had a nice figure and some revealing clothes, but she was holding a rather threatening blue pole that looked like it could do quite a bit of damage. A man stood by her side protectively, looking formal and sharp in a suit, though the image was quite ruined with the smoking cigarette in his mouth. One eye was covered by blonde hair, and the exposed eyebrow was in a curious swirly shape.

Another young man, seemingly slightly younger, had sniper goggles and an eccentric taste in clothes. A slingshot and a pouch were strapped by his side, apparently his choice of weapon. An animal-looking figure was by his side, resembling some kind of monstrous reindeer. He wore a pink hat with reindeer horns sticking out, and looked like he could pack a mean punch, which was probably the case.

A woman much older than the previous group stood off a little ways from them, giving off a strange and dark aura. The stern expression and the pitch black hair and eyes gave away her identity; the Demon Child, who had gotten a bounty of 79,000,000 beli at a very young age, supposedly responsible for taking out 24 platoons. By her was a man wearing sunglasses even though it was the middle of the night. His bright blue hair was done in a Mohawk, with an iron nose and unnaturally large arms. It was to be noted that he didn't wear pants, just his boxers. The last member was the strangest of all. He didn't seem to have a body, just all bones, and a huge afro. Perhaps the skeleton had taken a Devil Fruit?

All in all, they were definitely a weird bunch, their appearances causing many eyebrows raised.

Portgas was intrigued, as well, because the last and only time he had seen his brother with his crew, there was only Zoro, Nami, Sanji, Usopp, and Chopper. He had never met the other three, as they came in later. Yet, his counterpart knew them.

Meh. Weird world, weird stuff.

"Who is this, Ace?" Whitebeard thundered.

"That's my brother and his crew I've always told you about, Pops!" Ace replied cheerfully.

Portgas winced at his other self's optimistic tone. He was oddly at ease about this. There were groans from the Whitebeard commanders. "Here we go again," one of them mumbled. "Another story of about his brother."

Whitebeard began to laugh. "Gurararara… so this is the brat you're always talking about?" Apparently, Ace frequently talked about his brother, just like Portgas had done.

"Hey, I'm not a brat!" Luffy retorted indignantly.

"Luffy," Nami said, warning in her tone.

However, Whitebeard laughed instead. "This brat's got spunk."

Hearing that response, Portgas and Ace sighed quietly in relief. No one in their right minds would've talked back to the "Strongest Man in the World", with the glaring exception of their brainless little brother. "One of these days, he's going to get me killed," Ace muttered wearily, then cursed himself for saying so when he saw his other self's expression. "Sorry, I didn't mean it quite literally."

"I know," Portgas replied hoarsely, clutching his chest, as if the fatal wound had reopened.

Shanks cleared his throat. "I believe we had a serious purpose of coming here," he said.

The room quieted once more, to the point where Portgas became self-conscious of his breathing. It sounded awfully loud in contrast with the current atmosphere. He couldn't help but wonder if everyone was holding their breath, or at least, breathing in a way so it was completely silent. Or maybe he was simply overreacting.

"You have heard of Teach," Whitebeard spoke, the phrase sounding more like a statement than a question. He was certain.

A hand unconsciously touched his eye, where there were three deep, diagonal scars that went across as Shanks answered, "Of course."

"The rampage two weeks ago in West Blue was caused by him, wasn't it?"

"That's what my intel tells me."

A moment of silence. "That's it," Whitebeard said.

The entire process lasted only five sentences. Only. It was clear that everyone was caught between wanting to fall over and scream, "You gotta be kidding me!", and standing there with their mouths hanging open in surprise. But due to the fact that it was a meet up with the two Yonkou, they all remained standing stoically, with shock clear on their faces.

Shanks was unhappy with the answer. "Are you going to do anything about it at all?"

"That is up to me to decide," Whitebeard replied curtly.

"You can't let him go on like this. It's your duty. He was part of your crew," said Shanks tightly.

A split second later, and a large gust of wind, Shanks's saber clashed together Whitebeard's heavy bisento, causing the entire warehouse to tremble under their power. Both lowered their weapons, restraining themselves before they took down the building and drew unwanted attention.

The red-haired man scowled. "I'm serious, Whitebeard."

"You're 100 years too young to tell me what to do, brat!"

The two strongest men glared at each other, weapons still held at ready. Their respective crews also tensed into offensive stances, preparing to fight at moment's notice. Luffy and his gang stood at the side, watching the silent exchange nervously, while Ace and Portgas remained in their relaxed positions by the wall.

At least, Ace was. Portgas's fists had balled together, not from the desire to fight for his comrades, but from the slow frustration that was building up in him. For the first time, he thought of his adopted father as a fool. Blackbeard just couldn't be left alone to his own devices, not again. If the Marineford event happened all over again… Why can't they see? Why can't they understand? The old man should know what kind of person Teach is! He knew, but why didn't he take any action? Why?

His other self noted his agitation and stood up, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Calm down," he said.

"I can't!" Portgas said. "How can I ignore this?"

Ace sighed. He knew how his counterpart was feeling right now. "Look, I'll talk to Pops about this."

"He's not going to listen," Portgas growled.

Ace couldn't help but agree to his words. "I know," he admitted, "but I could try."

Portgas took a deep breath. "I'm sorry," he whispered, walking out of the corner and stopping in front the two Yonko, before his other self could stop him. He felt gasps and whispers, alarmed by his bold move.

"Quit it, you two," he commanded (or at least tried, since he could feel himself shaking) with an authoritative voice.

"Who the hell are you?" Whitebeard rumbled, bewilderment in his tone. Shanks had an equally puzzled expression.

He took another deep breath, calming his nerves, and pulled down his hoodie. His other hand lifted the cap off and tossed it carelessly to the floor. "Blackbeard has to be stopped. He killed me."

There was dead silence.

* * *

**My lame attempt in trying to bring some of the canon elements in. The meeting was reflecting back on when Shanks and Whitebeard met up while Ace was going after Blackbeard, if you all remember. Although, the situation's reversed here, as you can see, hehe.**

**Review, please! The more I get, the happier I become, and the more motivated I get to write, which means the faster the chapters come out. ;D**


	8. Front Page News

**Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece. Sadly. I wonder why I keep repeating this fact.**

* * *

If Portgas was to be perfectly honest, he didn't think about all the consequences and annoying stuff that went with it when he did made that rash decision. And if he was still honest, he didn't really give a crap. But now he sort of regretted the thinking; he hated stares and whispers. He was the center of attention, in a bad way. "What I'm trying to say is," he continued, ignoring all the shocked faces and pretending that it was perfectly normal to have two copies of one person, "you just can't leave Teach alone. It's not going to work. Whitebeard, he caused the deaths of you and me. And thousands of others in the battle."

Again, there was deathly silence. The former pirate felt like he was sweating bullets at this point from the pressure and the general no response.

He nearly jumped in shock when a hand was laid on his shoulder. But looking out the corner of his eye, it was just his other self. "He's right," Ace said simply, effectively backing him up. He looked very composed, in contrast to nearly freaking out when Portgas had tossed his hat away. He breathed in relief.

"Ace, please explain this," Whitebeard said, his face and tone a little too calm for the two's likings.

"Well," a cheery voice suddenly spoke up, "It is simple isn't it? There are two Aces now, and one comes from another world!"

Everyone in the room's attention was directed to a certain teen with a straw hat. He shrugged nonchalantly, like what he said was the most obvious thing in the world. It, in truth, was rather obvious to a more simple and childlike mind. And of course, his comment had caused the people in the room to feel very self conscious, outwitted by a mere rookie.

Meanwhile, Ace and Portgas were seething silently. What part of "stay silent and don't talk" did their younger brother not understand?! It was too late to strangle Luffy, though.

"What Lu- er, Straw Hat, said is true. I came from another world," Portgas admitted. He didn't like all the staring at all, not to mention the fact that some had their mouths wide open like fish. "And back in that world," he went on explaining, "I went after Blackbeard after he killed Thatch." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the Whitebeard commanders had frozen at the mention of the late fourth division commander. He didn't particularly feel like going into his defeat and imprisonment and paused momentarily, trying to find a way to continue without sounding pathetic.

Thankfully, Ace carried on for him. "Long story cut short, a lot of things happened, a big war took place between the Marines and the Whitebeard Pirates-"

"Pirates?" was the incredulous voice of Haruta.

"Yes, pirates," Portgas shot back, perhaps a little too harshly when she cringed.

"It was a big deal. All the admirals and vice admirals were there, so was Sengoku. We fought and got uhh, surprise backup, I guess you'd say, from my, or his brother from that world, along with many Impel Down criminals who broke out along with him," Ace attempted to explain it as fully as possible without letting it slip that it was because his counterpart Many eyebrows were raised at the "Impel Down criminals" part. It was a known fact that many gang members sent into Impel Down were enemies of Whitebeard.

"And well… as you heard… the battle resulted in severe casualties from both sides. Ace, the one standing next to me, was killed. And we don't know what happened after that. We still don't know what happened to the rest of the people. They might've died for all we know."

The only sounds in the room the entire time were the two speaking. The others tried to digest this sudden information, trying to understand what was going on. It was a lot to take in.

"This isn't a joke, right?" Shanks confirmed.

Ace shook his head morosely. "I wish."

"The _hige oyaji_ died, too," the straw hat teen declared unexpectedly.

…

"Say what?!" the entire room screamed out.

Portgas wondered how Luffy even knew that. "How?" he questioned.

Luffy's face was unusually somber when he replied. "When Ace went into a coma a few days ago, I had this really weird dream, and it was like what he said. I saw a lot of people dying, including the other Ace. And so Whitebeard got super angry, and he tore apart the entire Marineford. Then that Blackbeard guy also popped out with other people and started fighting. And then Whitebeard got killed, then the rest of the Marines began attacking the remaining pirates, including the other me." The room lapsed back into the deadly silence as the teen painted a bleak picture in their minds. "We were losing, but suddenly Shanks showed up with his gang and so he managed to end the war."

If said red-haired man was surprised, he didn't show it. Suddenly, he burst into laughter. "It was a good idea to bet my arm on you after all, Luffy," he said, patting the teen's head affectionately.

The eyes of the Whitebeard family nearly popped out as they heard that. Shanks had caused quite a stir in the entire Grand Line when he came back from one of the districts that he took a break on for vacation, because his left arm was gone. And when he was asked, he simply said, "I betted it on the New Age." Now, they finally saw the person he had sacrificed it on; Straw Hat, one of the current generation's super rookie. But he just seemed like what their adopted father would call a snot-nosed brat who was hyperactive and lacked brains.

"So what do you suggest we do?" Shanks continued.

"Track Teach down," one of the Whitebeard commanders suggested.

Portgas shook his head. "It took me a very long time to find him," he countered. "He could literally be anywhere in this world, though the chances of him in the New World is not as large."

That commander wilted at his words.

Ace opened his mouth, about to speak when-

_BOOM!_

The entire warehouse shook violently, as if something was trying to tear it apart. In this case, that was the truth. Wood peelings, dust, and dirt showered on the unsuspecting group, causing many to cough and choke at the unwanted intrusion of dirty particles in their lungs. Ace blinked back tears that were forming in his eyes, rubbing them furiously to get rid of the dust. Who the hell just did that?

There was another large smash, and the large steel door came crashing down onto the floor, sending a small tremor once again. "There they are!" a large voice yelled out in the midst of all the confusion, and people began pouring through the entrance towards the mafia group, armed with large firearms. They all wore the same uniform, a white vest with a navy blue necktie and pants, and some had caps with the words MARINE spelled clearly out on the front. They let out a battle cry and charged towards their opponents.

Ace wasn't particularly surprised it was them, though he did wonder how they got the intel that the two Yonkou were meeting up. Guess something big like this couldn't be hidden very well, not to mention his brother's crew also showed up. He quickly located his other self and the cap that lay untouched on the floor, before picking it up and jamming it onto Portgas's head, ignoring the surprised yelp. "The Marines are here!" he hissed, "We can't let you be seen like this."

His counterpart only nodded and got into a battle stance. "And I assume I can only fight with basic combat, huh?"

"You got that right." Ace sidestepped a lousy punch, then in a split second decided better and forcefully tugged the man's arm, effectively using his momentum to send him in a back flip, and the marine landed on the ground, the wind knocked out of him. "Hiken!" A fiery fist flew towards a group who were looking around nervously, afraid to do much because of the presence of two of the strongest underground members alive. They screamed as their clothes were burnt, and they were tossed back into a wall, crumpling onto the ground in pain. They probably won't get up in a while.

But in honesty, whoever ordered this attack had pretty much sent off his (or her) soldiers to commit suicide. It wasn't possible to win unless they had the Admirals popping out. In that case, it was a good idea to scram before an all out battle occurred and people began dying. It was lucky for the other side that they were the kind of people that didn't kill unless necessary.

"Behind ya!" Portgas suddenly yelled. A marine had attempted to sneak up behind him with a knife in hand, but Ace whirled around and sent a strong uppercut to his chin. Blood gushed out of the man's mouth; he probably accidently bit his tongue or the inside of his cheek.

Ace saw that his other self was fairly well with using just simple combat. He was taking out all the opponents with one strategically placed hit, sending them all flying toward different corners, and in some cases, embedded briefly in the ceiling before free falling onto the ground with a sickening crunch. The entire time, the hood and cap kept his face shadowed. Three men ran up behind him, when he turned abruptly with a pistol –wherever he had gotten it from– pointed at their heads. A maniacal grin plastered his face as he watched their horrified expressions. The second commander had to admit that at the moment, his other self looked very frightening.

Shots rang out, and blood spurted from the knees of the men. They collapsed, howling in pain while clutching their legs.

"Gomu Gomu no Gatling!" His brother, on the other side of the building, was busy showering fists at the poor marines, who didn't have any time to run or duck before they found their faces planted on the cement ground or walls. Somewhere near him, there was also a mini tornado. His eyes made out Zoro in the middle, sword in each hand and another in his mouth. Luffy's entire crew was fighting just as well as the rest of them, taking all the marines out easily.

Ace frowned. This was oddly too easy.

And of course, he jinxed himself. The wall with that had the entrance hissed all of a sudden, steam rising, the metal bubbling and crumpling into a gloppy mess of melted steel. It gave way to a mass of bright red, bubbling liquid, which slowly formed into the hulking shoulder and arm of a man, a stern expression gracing his features. He wore red and was of an unusually tall height, and donned a marine jacket. "Pirate scum," he spat.

At that moment, Ace felt like things were going to become very wrong if this fight continued, not because of the fact that they were going to be plastered on the news, not because of the fact that an Admiral came. It was just a strange feeling, telling him that it would be good for them all if they all retreated, not to mention that he was feeling a tiny bit woozy in the head.

Portgas had gone deathly pale. He completely froze, mouth half opened, eyes widened in surprise, and his hands were shaking. One of them went involuntarily to his chest, a movement the man had unconsciously picked up since they initially met in the early morning.

Ace couldn't blame his other self. He remembered the fleeting moment of fear that Portgas had felt, before replaced by pure determination and desperation to save his brother, and that horrible, searing pain of insides been burnt, a feeling he had not had since consuming the Mera Mera no Mi. And now, his murderer was standing in front of him, ready to kill once again. Akainu was definitely strong, Ace had to admit, been an admiral and wielder of a logia Devil Fruit.

The rookie marines began fighting once more with renewed vigor, their confidence surging now that their Admiral had arrived. Yet, there was a great burst of energy that swept through them all, and most crumpled to the ground, knocked out by the powerful Haki Shanks had emitted. "Retreat!" he called out.

It might've sounded disgraceful or cowardly, but getting plastered on the front page news was not the best thing right now. In theory, if they did take down Akainu, the Marine Head Quarters would be alerted, and they would dispatch more men of higher ranks. Then the two Yonkou would summon their forces, and it would escalate to a full out bloody battle, reminisce of the Marine Ford war in Ace's mind, although probably not as serious, unless Blackbeard decided randomly to join in.

All in all, all this fighting was just going to attract more attention. The underground people began to back away, but never turning their backs directly to run. Out of the corner of his eye, Ace saw Usopp draw a little pea-looking thing and launched it in the air in one swift movement. It exploded instantly into a huge cloud of smoke, giving everyone time to retreat while the Admiral and his men were blinded and busy coughing.

Ace tugged the hand of Portgas, who was still in a trance. "Let's go," he whispered, and they disappeared into the night. Moments later, they heard the enraged cry of Akainu, furious that they had all escaped. They'll be lucky if there weren't security swarming all the four districts and Grand Line the next day, trying to track down the mafia members. Not to mention, he was feeling worse by the minute, like his head was going to burn up…

* * *

Portgas sat up from the couch, pushing away the soft covers. He rubbed his eyes and blinked, taking in his surroundings. He was back at his counterpart's apartment, somehow. All he knew last night was that that bloodthirsty bastard Akainu had charged into the warehouse, and he froze up. The rest was blurry. Something with escaping and ending up back at the apartment with Ace and Luffy, then muttering under his breath and finally falling onto the comfy couch, dead asleep.

He got up reluctantly from the warm makeshift bed to stretch, shooting a glance at the clock on the wall. It was already 10… Luffy's room was empty, as expected, but to his surprise, his other self was still lying on the bed, though he kicked away the covers. In the quietness of the room, Portgas heard that his breathing sounded a little labored to be healthy. He knocked on the door, to be polite.

"Come in," was the weary reply of Ace. His eyes were still closed.

"How are you feeling?" Portgas asked; he already had an idea what the answer was going to be.

"Shit," Ace said bluntly, rolling over on his side. "My head hurts so bad and I feel strangely warm. And I feel sore all over even though I'm not supposed to." True to his words, there was an unnatural flush in his cheeks and sheen of sweat on his forehead. Portgas noticed that he was also shivering.

Portgas walked over and placed his palm on his other self's forehead. As he expected, it was hot. "You have a fever," he stated the obvious.

Ace groaned. "Of all the times to get sick," he muttered angrily.

The former pirate shrugged. "Get some rest," he advised, "and where's the thermometer? Your head feels too hot to be a normal fever." He bent down next to a couple of drawers and began flipping around, hoping to get lucky.

"I'm fine!" Ace protested, "I always have a slightly higher temperature than other people, so this is no big deal."

Portgas pointedly ignored him and continued to search. He pulled open a large on the left of the cabinet, and a few medical supplies spilled up. Band aids, alcohol, Q tips… Rummaging around, he pulled out a thermometer triumphantly. "Aha! Now stick it under your tongue for three minutes or whatever the hell it's supposed to be." He shoved it into Ace's hands, who complied reluctantly.

Meanwhile, as the three minutes ticked away, Portgas went back to that cabinet to see if he could find some Tylenol, to fight off the fever, humming an old song. He pulled it out from the mess of other over-the-counter medicine. "Let's see what your temperature is." he said in a cheerful tone. Examining the thermometer, he continued in a more serious tone. "You got a high fever, just as I thought."

Ace mumbled a string of curses as Portgas shook the Tylenol bottle, then poured out the thick, pink liquid. "Here you go," he said, handing the medicine to him.

Ace didn't budge. "No."

"We're not doing this stupid argument."

"I'm not drinking that."

"I say you are."

"Why should I?"

"You're not going to get better like this."

"I am."

"We're not going to argue about this. Just drink it and be done!"

"Give me one good reason to."

Portgas thought for a moment. "Teach."

That one word had his counterpart snatching the little measuring cup out of his hands and downing the liquid in a gulp. "Bleh," he complained, making a face. "Tastes gross."

Portgas rolled his eyes. "It's medicine, what do you expect? Anyways, I'm going to get the newspaper. Think it'll be a good idea to check the news and see how big of a fuss we made."

Ace sighed desolately. "Probably a crap load. I expect they're going to have a looooong article about dangers and blah blah blah, then blow everything out of proportion and exaggerate it heavily, because that's just what the stupid, useless, unreliable media do, and you'll expect the security to tighten up every day for the next two weeks or so and it'll be the topic of everyone's conversations durin-"

The former pirate held out a hand. "Stop, please," he said, interrupting, "before I get a headache from your ranting and raving." He waltzed off and opened the door, picking up the thick roll of the newspaper. It didn't matter if people saw him or not. They'd just think he was the other Ace, reading the news like usual.

He tossed it at his other self, back in Ace's room. "Here you go."

And as Ace unfurled the _Grand Line Times_, Portgas saw the large bolded headlines on the front page, **The Underground Strikes Again. **Melodramatic much? A large colorful picture of the completely wrecked warehouse was plastered on the front. Half of it was knocked down, with pieces and rubble lying everywhere. Portgas didn't realize that they had created such a large mess.

Ace scanned it quickly, snorting now and then. "Let me read it out, shall I?"

"Sure."

"Once again, the gangs hidden in the dark, troubled areas of our society have struck again," Ace began reading out loud in an exaggeratedly serious and official voice. "Last night, this warehouse served as a meeting room between two of the most ferocious mafia groups, the Whitebeard Famiglia and the Red Hair Famiglia. Rumor has it that one of the super rookies, the Straw Hat, were also at the scene. Experts question why these three groups would meet up. These events do not happen, as the Yonkou are considered as each other's greatest enemies, and yet last night served as evidence against this theory. What are the two mysterious syndicates planning? Perhaps, they want to go against our government?

"This meeting was intercepted quickly, however, by the Marines. One of the three Admirals, Admiral Sakazuki was dispatched along with several troops of men, ready to face the fearsome enemy. A large fight soon escalated, and no casualty has been taken in account yet. Admiral Sakazuki had refused commentary, and the rest of the articles go on and on about other bullshit and obvious facts. The press has made it out like we're plotting and we're gonna gather every syndicate or some crap like that and cause a revolution. Some stupid theories also think that the Revolutionaries are part of this."

Portgas rolled his eyes. "The hell. This article's kinda badly written and really stupid, if you ask me."

"Duh, Captain Obvious," Ace said. "See, I told you. Says right here that the streets will be more guarded and that civilians are advised against staying outside past midnight because they're currently investigating this and going to do some questioning and poking around here and there. Ridiculous."

"Indeed… you were right after all. The media sucks."

"Told you. Oh, open my laptop and check the internet." Ace coughed twice before continuing. "Bet you'll find some hilarious stuff on it."

Portgas eyed his other self strangely. "… Laptop? Like that thing you use to access a lot of stuff, right?"

Ace briefly chastised himself at his forgetfulness. They didn't have technology like this in the other world, did they? He pushed away the covers and got up, ignoring Portgas's protest. "I'm fine, ain't that bad. Just gotta drink loads of water and I'll be alright," he said dismissively, flipping up the cover of his laptop. The engine hummed as it went back to life. He opened a browser and began typing in "gang activity", but before he even fully typed in the word gang, Google came up with the suggestion of "gang activity battle last night". He should've known it would be all over the internet within the first few hours.

A rather large page on FaceBook had already been created and was filled with activity. The most recent post was: "What do you think the gangs are up to? Is it possible that the government will be overthrown?" For the last time, they were thinking up some way to get _Teach_, not the stupid _government_, as fun as it might be.

Portgas leaned in beside him, scanning over the posts.

**Rick Kayser: **nah aint gonna happen dont let this stupid shit get in ur head – _3 minutes ago_

**Dona Farrel: **The government will never be overthrown! We are too strong, and we will take down the scum! They deserve punishment and death – _2 minutes ago_**  
Maurel Trundy, Leola Quarterman, Lewis Bogardus, and 72 others like this.**

**Dat Guy with the Swag: **fag stfu dun get wat u say im crosin fngrs tat de gov wil fall cuz dey sux – _2 minutes ago_

**Kimberly Harkey: **lol n0 waiiiiii! our guvrmtttt iz ttlyy 2 bgi n $tufzzzzzz – _2 minutes ago_

**Elise Almodorvar: **What the hell are you guys talking about? The mafia doesn't stand a chance against the government and marines. We shouldn't be worrying about things like these, because we should know our gov is strong enough to take them on. They are just a bunch of unorganized people who would kill each other just for money, people who wreck other normal civilians' homes and loot, cause destruction, do illegal things like smoking drugs, and even more disgusting acts. We need to stand strong and have faith in them that they will take care of it. I personally think everyone should just focus on their lives and jobs, and leave this to our government. **– **_1 minute ago  
_**Maribel Roane, Vernon Schick, Lizzie Macmillan, and 156 others like this.**

"I'm not sure if I should be more horrified that all these people have complete faith in a horrid and corrupted government, or with the horrendous spelling of many of these people," Portgas stated, his voice filled with disgust.

Ace snickered. "Welcome to the internet. You'll get used to it sooner or later."

"You were right. I didn't expect all this in such a short time, and the comments are still coming at a super fast rate." Portgas pointed to the bottom of the screen, where comments were popping up.

"This generation's communication is rather amazing, compared to your place. But we don't have vivre cards or things like that."

"Huh… now what are the chances of those kids actually doing something to try and hunt down mafia people?"

"Either 0 because they're too lazy, or 100 because they're the overzealous freaks who's got it in their head that they can actually kick ass. And they're usually the type of people to get killed in three seconds flat, literally."

"There are actually stupid kids like that?"

"You'd be surprised."

They shared a laugh.

* * *

**I deeply apologize for the super slow update. I have been sick for the past two weeks, and I'm still very sick (I'm seriously coughing right now). Thankfully, the medicine's helping a bit, and hopefully the stupid illness will go away in a few days. There have also been a few personal problems that's going on for me, serious ones that could be life changing in a way, and I'm trying to figure out a way to solve the problems and not cause more havoc.**

**I will be overjoyed if I have not lost any readers because of this late update, and I am hoping that the extra long chapter makes up for the wait. **

**So please! Make me a little happier by typing a small review please! Even "I like it a lot" will make me smile and be happy. *bows* Thank you for reading this chapter, and I hope you enjoyed it.**

**P.S. Hope none of you are insulted by the last part with the internet. Truth to be told, I really can't stand it when people don't type properly and the things end up mostly unintelligible. I can't even TRY to type in that fashion, and so I had my epic friend, SierraLarson help me with it. :D**

**~Shen**


	9. Kidnapped

**Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece. *sobs***

* * *

Ace's head incessantly buzzed, and his hands shook fiercely as he attempted to twist open the bottle cap of a ketchup bottle. He was tempted to smash it onto the ground or the wall at this point. Taking a deep breath, he set it down to get some fresh air, thinking that'll help his fever, and before he actually smashed it and created another mess.

"You should really rest," came the voice of his other self out of the blue. He poked his head out of the doorway leading to Ace's room, eyes red from staring at the computer screen for hours. The entire time, he had been using it to do research on Blackbeard and the rest of the world, going through pointless threads and other news Ace would usually disregard as useless. He secretly wondered if Portgas was just using this excuse to play with the computer.

"Whatever. Get over here to help me open this stupid ketchup bottle," he replied whilst glaring at said object.

Portgas snickered. "You're so weak you can't even open that?" he jibed cheekily.

Ace growled and tossed a fireball towards his other self. The flame, however, melted right into Portgas's body, and it was only then when he realized that they were both users of the Mera Mera no Mi, so launching fire at him would do nothing, except earn him a smirk. How could his own self be so irritating?

Portgas, though, walked over to the kitchen anyways and popped open the bottle easily. "Here you go."

Ace snatched it angrily out of his hands and proceeded to pour a generous amount of the sauce into one of tonight's dishes.

His counterpart leaned against the wall, shoving his hands into his pant pockets casually. "You should take it easy today. Your fever's not gonna be gone like this, ya know," he commented.

The mafia member ignored him. "Still gotta cook dinner."

"Order pizza," the former pirate countered.

"Too late."

"Why the hell are you so stubborn?" Portgas was now irritated. Ace was definitely a workaholic; he couldn't stop, even when his health was already disastrous as it is.

"Because," Ace scowled, "if I don't do this, no one else would. I obviously can't depend on Luffy to do anything, can I? Like he can cook and clean the house, like someone else could take over my duties as the second commander. I still got patrol work tonight." He stirred the soup a little harsher than needed, and some of the contents splashed over the edges. A hand suddenly grabbed onto his wrist, forcing him to stop with what he was doing. "Let go."

"No," his other self's voice was firm and cool. "I don't know why you're such an ass right now, but I want you to stop everything you're doing. You know that I can take care of the stuff you do, and that the old man will let you off tonight since you're sick and all. Even if you had to go anyways, I could always take over. I know everything as well as you do."

Ace's free hand switched the fire off. "I don't know why I'm like this," he admitted. "I just feel so uptight for some reason, because I'm afraid to be sick. I'm afraid of leaving Luffy alone to deal with his stuff, and I just-" he broke off, running a hand through his unkempt hair. "Ugh, I don't even know anymore."

Portgas began pushing him out the kitchen. "Well, go call the pizza right now. Can't have you get even worse." Once Ace was out of earshot as he called to order, he muttered under his breath, "Sometimes I feel like I'm the older one, even though we're exactly the same."

A few moments later, his counterpart turned back to him and opened his mouth. "I'm don-" He was interrupted when his eyes rolled back, and his knees suddenly gave way. The mafia member had blacked out.

"Oh my god, you!" Portgas groaned. He kicked his counterpart in the side, and none too gently. Hopefully the man wouldn't question the strange bruise that had appeared out of seemingly nowhere. He hauled him up roughly by the arms and proceeded to drag him back to the bedroom, shoving him back onto the bed and pulling the covers roughly over. Then he adjusted the bed sheets so they were fully wrapped around Ace.

He dipped the towel that had been previously prepared into a small bucket of cold water, twisting it to get all the extra moisture out, and laid it on the other's forehead. "You better get well soon, or I'll die trying to take care of you," he said softly and sighed.

Once he was seated again in front of the addictive computer, he started typing away furiously. Portgas had to say he was pretty surprised at the speed he could type. At first, he had assumed it'll take all eternity for him to find each letter on the keyboard, and then after practicing, it became much easier, and through a short test he found out that his WPM speed was at 95. That got him thinking. Was it possible that the unique skills from his counterpart were somehow passing over to him as well?

Portgas passed many strange websites, one of them called 9Gag. He didn't understand most of the things posted, or the strange faces that appeared in every little comic strip. He decided to move on, since the website clearly didn't have anything he needed.

On to Reddit, Twitter, and Tumblr.

He decided to ditch those, too, since it was mostly nonsense and nothing particularly important. Even if news about last night were plastered all over them, all of the posts were similar to the post he saw on FaceBook in the morning. In short, they were all propaganda and useless stuff, not to mention half of them were horribly written. Did kids in this world not know how to spell or write properly? He'll have to ask Ace about that later when he woke up… if he ever woke up today.

Going back to FaceBook, he half-heartedly typed in Marshall D. Teach and was not surprised when no results came up. _Of course… I'm such a vain idiot for wishing so…_

The computer started beeping strangely, jerking Portgas out of his current annoyance. "What the hell?" he said out loud, and spotted a black square that appeared on top of the screen.

**Marco is calling you.**

You could call on the computer? He clicked the answer with video button cautiously, and the line connected. Marco's face popped out on the screen.

Portgas leaped back in surprise and terror. "Ahhhhh!" he screamed, "How the fuck did you get into the computer?!"

"Portgas?" was the amused answer. "I'm not in the screen. This is something called video chatting."

He immediately felt dumb. "I knew that," he said quickly.

There was a small chuckle on the other side. "Sure you did," Marco said, grinning, while the other scowled. "Anyways," he continued, changing the topic quickly, "Where's Ace?"

Portgas shot a look behind. His other self was still asleep, gently snoring and overall unperturbed by his sudden outburst. "He's sick so he's sleeping right now," he explained.

"Sick?" Marco raised an eyebrow. "How sick are we talking about here?"

Portgas listed out all the symptoms. "High fever, sweating, shivering, unnatural flush, and such."

"Oh dear," the other murmured, "that must be caused by the blood transfusions."

The younger's eyes widened. "Blood transfusions? What happened to him that was so serious?"

Marco gave him a strange look. "Didn't you see what happened in your dreams while you were in a coma or something?"

Portgas paused for a moment, thinking back to the last things that had happened. Chaos, people fighting, seastone, bullets… "Ohhhhh…" he said. "I see…"

"Yep," the Zoan user replied grimly. "It's probably not going to pass very soon."

He sighed. "Looks like I'm stuck been his babysitter for a while, huh," he remarked.

Marco laughed. "And Luffy, by the way. Speaking of him, I believe you have to pick him up afterschool today, because Ace usually does that."

It took a moment for the sentence to sink fully into his head. "What?! Luffy's 17, surely he doesn't need a person to pick him up?"

The older shrugged. "They've always been doing that for whatever reasons."

"That's just great," said Portgas in a sarcastic tone. "I don't even know where that high school is."

"Take Ace's phone when you leave," Marco instructed, "I'll send the address over as a text message. You know how to follow directions, do you?"

He rolled his eyes. "What do you take me as?"

The other cracked a smile. "Ah well. Ace can be a little bit directionally challenged without his compass."

Portgas blinked. "I'm pretty sure I don't have that problem. Oh yeah, that reminds me of a theory I have."

"Go on."

"I think maybe some of his abilities are transferring to me, and it might be the other way around."

Marco appeared to be deep in thought as he pondered over the possibility of the theory. He scratched his chin absently. "Hmmmm… I really don't see how that would work."

"I don't either," Portgas said, "but try explaining why I could type so fast. I have never really typed on a keyboard before. We always just used voice recognition and den den mushis."

"Huh… go pick that gun over there and see what you're going to do with it," Marco suggested.

The younger looked behind him to the bed stand besides his other sleeping self. There were parts of a gun. He fingered a piece hesitantly, having never shot one before. His combat skills and Devil fruit never had him resort to these kind of methods. Fiddling with two other pieces, he somehow got them all attached together, and the other just fitted together easily like a jigsaw puzzle. The bullets were loaded, and he cocked the gun. "Like this?" he asked, waving it in front of the screen.

Marco looked mildly surprised. "And how did you know how to do this?" he questioned, his voice suspicious.

Portgas shrugged. "I don't know. The stuff just fit together like some weird puzzle. Ain't that hard."

"Actually, it's not as simple as you take it to be," Marco countered.

"… Are you serious?"

Marco nodded. "You might be right, but I honestly don't see how that works."

"Maybe because we're the same people and we're currently in the same universe?" Portgas offered.

"That makes no sense."

He pouted. "Can you sugar coat your words next time?"

"Dream on," the older replied. "Anyways, try aiming at something and shooting."

Portgas's eyes widened. "Wouldn't that make a loud bang which will draw the neighbors' attention? And then they'll call the Marines and all the shit that'll follow which leaves us screwed?"

Marco laughed. "This apartment has been reinforced so that it's soundproof and bulletproof. To the outside, it'll seem as if this place was deathly quiet all the time."

With a wicked grin, the younger pointed mischievously at his other self's head. It didn't matter if he shot him, anyways, since it'll go right through because of his devil fruit powers. He was just about to pull the trigger when Marco yelled out frantically, "Don't do that!"

Hearing the other's cry, he fumbled with the gun before it slipped out of his hands and clattered onto the ground. "What?"

Marco breathed a long sigh of relief. "All the weapons we use here in the mafia are reinforced by seastone. You do that to Ace, he'll probably die."

Portgas gulped nervously. "Thank god you stopped me in time," he mumbled weakly.

The other rubbed his temples exasperatedly. "As if I don't have enough trouble with one Ace… I swear, one day, you'll be the death of me. Either one of you.

"Ehehehe… Sorry." His eyes roamed around the room and located a valid target. It was a big, fluffy looking pink pillow in the shape of a heart, with white, frilly laces stitched to the edge. He was sorely tempted to shake his other self awake and ask why he would buy such a thing, while hoping Ace wouldn't mind a hole in it. Using both hands, he focused on that small heart stitched to the middle and pulled the trigger thrice quickly.

_BANG! BANG! BANG!_

He winced as his ears rang obnoxiously from the loud noises. Peeking out of one of the windows, his eyes darted around, wondering if any neighbors had heard and were alarmed. Nope. It was dead silent, with a few birds flying overhead while calling out. He waited for a few seconds. Nothing.

He switched his attention onto the pillow, which now had one large smoking hole in the middle where the heart was. Portgas frowned. Didn't he shoot twice? Checking the gun told him that three bullets were missing, so he did. "Marco, for some reason there's only one hole in the pillow," he said, puzzled.

"Show it to me," he commanded.

Portgas obliged and lifted the object up to the screen.

There was a pause, then Marco said, "It's because you shot in the same place, idiot. And you completely obliterated the heart."

"… How did you know that there was a heart?"

"… Because I was the one that bought it for Ace…"

…

"Wait. You bought it for – you know what, I'm not even going to ask."

"It was a dare."

"Oh really, was it?"

"I don't swing that way."

"A likely story."

"It's time to pick up Luffy."

"… what."

"I'm serious. Time's up! Get your ass moving!"

"You're trying to shoo me away, aren't cha?"

Marco grinned, not bothering to hide it. "Go," he said, waving his hands. And the video call went dead as he hung up.

"Sheesh…"

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Portgas spotted the large and very fancy looking building of Luffy's school. He didn't dare to push his luck and take Stryker the motorcycle, because for all he knew the weird passing-abilities theory was just false, and he'll crash the bike into something, then endure fines and maybe even accidentally burning something. The school was altogether very impressive, and was a private school, which lead him to wonder how much it cost. Surely a hefty amount? If Ace had so much money, why didn't he invest it into a house? He could understand that the other would want to give his younger brother good education, but the idea of Luffy studying was just strange.

Students were slowly emerging from the large double doors, decked in the blue and white formal school uniform, walking with dignity towards their respective limos as sleek looking butlers and footmen bowed to them. A corner of his mouth went up into an amused smirk as he imagined Luffy wearing such a thing, or acting like a rich kid. He'd bet all the beli he had that the kid probably forgone the uniform completely, or at least took off the tie and jacket. The smirk widened as he spotted the younger with the said clothing articles slung casually over his shoulder. However, it quickly disappeared when he noticed his younger brother looked strangely subdued and anxious, in contrast with his usual hyperactivity and sunny attitude. What was wrong? From the worried faces of his friends, it was clear that something was up with Luffy.

The younger caught sight of him and said a hurried goodbye to his friends, racing over to Portgas's side. "Where's Ace?" he demanded, his voice sounding on the edge of hysteria.

Portgas briefly wondered how Luffy could tell the difference between the two, then answered, "He's too sick to pick you up today, so I came instead."

Luffy's eyes widened, his hands clenching into tight fists. "Oh no," he breathed in horror. "We've got to go! Now!" He grabbed the former pirate's hand and started to sprint down the street before the latter fully registered what was happening.

Portgas managed to keep up with his insane pace as they sped past the buildings at an unnatural speed, but slow enough to not attract unwanted attention. "What happened?" he asked urgently. Something was definitely really wrong.

"I had a vision," Luffy explained hurriedly, focusing on the road, "that Ace was attacked. By this big fat guy he called Blackbeard. He kidnapped Ace!"

Visions? "How do you know it's not just a dream or anything?" Portgas enquired curiously. Was Luffy somehow developing a sixth sense, or precognition?

"I don't know," the rubber teen replied, "but I just know that it's real, like how I saw what happened in your world."

His face paled. "Oh shit," he muttered. "I _knew _today was a bad day."

Luffy didn't answer.

Meanwhile, apprehension was growing inside of Portgas. He feared for the wellbeing of his other self, as well as Luffy. To be sick and kidnapped by Blackbeard… he didn't even want to think about it. Teach was horribly inhumane to the ones he considered enemies, and he had the first hand experience. And the only time he had seen Luffy this terrified and anxious was during the Marineford battle, which he hoped to whatever deities that existed would not repeat ever again in the entire history of humanity.

Luffy pretty much cleared all the stairs up to the apartment in one great leap, and with a second of hesitation, the elder followed. He jabbed the key into the doorknob and twisted roughly, yanking the door open. He stopped dead when the sight of the room reached him.

Portgas cursed under his breath.

The inside was virtually demolished, walls smashed down, furniture overturned and reduced to smoldering chunks, plates and glasses in shards as they littered the burnt floor. One of the windows was flung unceremoniously open, one of the panels' hinge creaking as it was disturbed by a light breeze passing through. Ace's bedroom suffered the most damage. It was obvious that he had put up a fight, although a vain one seeing as his body wasn't in a condition to do such things.

"I'm going to kill that bastard!" Luffy screamed out in rage.

Portgas agreed silently and fished out the iPhone from his pocket, dialing a number. In a low and grim voice, he said, "Marco, get here immediately." The other hung up without a word.

* * *

_A little bit before…_

Ace woke up, feeling very disoriented. He touched the piece of cloth over his forehead, feeling its cool moisture. Then he bolted upright, the towel falling onto his blanket. "Shit!" he swore out loud, looking around wildly, and noticed a small sticky note besides the bed. He picked it up and scanned through the contents:

_Hey Ace,_

_Well, long story cut short, you passed out because you overworked yourself (IDIOT!), and so I had to drag you to your bed while you slept like the dead. You'll notice that I'm gone because I'm off to pick up Luffy (assuming that you're reading this while I'm gone because you have woken up, since I'd have torn up the note if you didn't wake up yet when I came back, blah blah blah). Had a short video chat with Marco about a theory I'm mulling over. _

_By the way, I hope you're not going to be too angry with the state of your fluffy pillow. I had to use it for a test. _

Ace glanced quickly at the pink object and noticed a hole in the middle where the heart used to be. How lovely.

_Anyways, I'll explain my theory when I get back to Luffy. Don't get up, just rest before you get any worse, and heaven knows if I can stand been your babysitter as well as Luffy's. _

He allowed himself a brief grin before balling the note up and tossing it into the wastebasket in one fluid movement. Heaving himself out of bed, he saw that his phone was also gone. Portgas must've taken it to use it as a GPS or something, provided that he knew how to use it. _Now_, he wondered absent-mindedly, _what was that theory all about? And what did it have to do with shooting holes into a pillow?_

His head snapped up when his ears picked up a strange scuffling sound. It was definitely not a mouse. Too rough. Before he managed to give a second thought to that noise, shadows flitted around his window and it gave way with a huge crash.

Ace froze. Holy shit. His mind had one final morbid thought before it switched to its wary mode. _My other self was right. Fate really does love screwing with us._

His most hated enemy, Blackbeard, was standing there in all of his disgusting glory with a large, gap-toothed grin.

Ace tensed, hands forming into fists, muscles tensing, as he slid into a defensive position.

"If it isn't my favorite commander! I missed you!" Teach said in a cheerful tone, his creepy smile never faltering. "But you don't seem to miss me."

"Like hell I would. What do you want?" Ace replied snappily, his fists lighting on fire.

Blackbeard pouted, something he never wanted to see, causing him to shudder inwardly. "What do I want?" he drawled, enjoying the wary and (dare he admit it) the slightly terrified look in Ace's eyes, "You don't look particularly healthy, commander Ace."

Ace tried to ignore his throbbing head and the slight dizziness that was beginning to cloud his mind. "So what?" he spat.

"I'm hurt," Teach responded in mock-pain. "I am here to offer you to be part of my crew. Break away from the old man. His time's up. It's time for a new era."

"Don't insult him!" Ace yelled. "Hiken!" The fiery fist flew at the large man and hit him squarely in the stomach. And the response was surprising to say the least. Teach did not dodge; instead, he promptly dropped to the ground and rolled around, screaming "hot" repeatedly on top of his lungs as he tried to put out the fire, while destroying most of Ace's room in the process, but he couldn't care less. His eyes narrowed. Was this some kind of trick? He leaned against the wall, coughing a few times, and summoned little green fire balls which hovered near Blackbeard. "Hotarubi…"

Blackbeard was on his feet again, a comical expression of relief on his face as he finally put out the fire.

"Hidaruma!" The entire room burst into flames. The sickness was messing with his head, making his attacks become haywire. It wasn't Hibashira, damnit! His hazy mind barely registered that the target had disappeared and was behind it. Ace leaped back in surprise.

"Guess your answer is really a solid no, then," Blackbeard said. For someone who broke into another's house just for an invite, he didn't look terribly disappointed.

"You killed a crew mate just for a devil fruit," Ace seethed. "What kind of person are you?"

"One who knows the clear path to been number one," the traitor replied. "And now, I will show you why I wanted the Yami Yami no Mi so badly." He spread his arms out as a strange black mist flowed out of his body. It wasn't exactly mist, though, as it looked more like dark blackness seeping out of the man's body, with no definite form. They flowed around the entire apartment, seeping through the walls and crumbling them. Objects were smashed, plants became shriveled, paper crumpled into ashes, and the furniture were creaking and collapsing.

Just what type of ungodly power did the Yami Yami no Mi grant the user?

The darkness had formed a circle around him, as if they were trying to trap him in that small area. Too bad for Teach, Ace didn't intend to surrender without a fight. Crossing his index fingers, he yelled, "Jujika!" A column of fire in the shape of a cross flew towards his target but missed. Ace panted heavily, falling onto one knee. These attacks already sapped away most of his feeble strength. He had to end it soon. For the first time, he hated the fact that the walls were made to be soundproof. No one could hear anything in the home, even if someone dropped a bomb.

Suddenly, he felt a sharp tugging force on his body and to his horror, he was been pulled towards Blackbeard against his will.

The Yami Yami no Mi, apparently, came with a gravitational force, as well.

Ace fought to stay still, fingers digging into the soft carpet. The struggle didn't last when the force disappeared abruptly, and he fell completely to the ground, exhausted.

A thick hand curled around his sweaty hair and tugged roughly upwards, forcing his head to meet Blackbeard's.

"Not so tough now, are we?" he said with his same gap-toothed grin. "My offer still stands, commander. Will you join my famiglia?"

Ace spat in his face and felt sharp pain at the back of his neck before he sank into darkness. _Fuck…_

* * *

**You guys didn't think Portgas was the only one that'd be messed around with, do you? Anyways, the last little scene was just my pathetic attempt at a reenactment of the epic battle between Ace and Blackbeard, with (sadly) the same results. And no, Ace shouldn't be any stronger than I made him to be. I know some of you probably think Ace is too weak in the fight, but remember, the poor guy's suffering a high fever. From personal experience, it sucks like heck and I feel very weak and dizzy when that happens.**

**I don't know where the pink pillow came from, to be honest. It just came in my head and so I was like, hey, why not? Portgas's jibe about Marco been gay was just a joke, I was not hinting any MarcoxAce and there is none. Sorry to you yaoi fans, but I decided to keep yaoi out of this fic, for now, anyways. **

**Well… it's pretty much permanent now that every chapter's going to be at least 4000 words from the original 3000 unless something happens that force me to shorten it. Hope you like this change! And of course, please review! Makes this little author very happy! And I'll be motivated to write the chapter faster! And more goodies! So, folks, please REVIEW! :D Till next time!**


	10. Battle

**Disclaimer: For the umpteenth time, I don't own One Piece. Surprised?**

* * *

"Long story cut short," Portgas began, taking a deep breath as he tried to shove down the worry that was becoming stronger by the minute, "I went to pick up Luffy, and when I saw him he told me something bad happened to Ace, and so we ran home to find the apartment looking like this." He gestured to the mess that littered around them. "If what Luffy saw was correct, Blackbeard kidnapped him."

Luffy was perched on the large cotton lump that was once the couch, his trademark straw hat tilted so they covered his eyes. He had been silent the entire time as they waited for the arrival of Marco, except the incessant tapping of his feet and the absent-minded drumming of his fingers. It was obvious that the younger was very worried for his brother.

Marco rubbed his cheek. "Hmmmmm…" he mused, deep in thought, "This is just another thing that doesn't make sense. Why would Luffy know what was going on?"

"I have no idea," Portgas said, shrugging, "It's like last night. Somehow he can see stuff beyond. Like he's got creepy clairvoyance."

"Clairvo-what?" Luffy said suddenly, raising his head confusedly.

"Clairvoyance. It means to see the future. Or see beyond," Portgas explained. "And I think you might be developing that for some reason. And we all know strange things have been happening."

With that, the rubber teen sank back into his position on the mangled couch, silent once more.

The first commander was still deep in thought. "Right now, we've got three mysteries that we can't quite solve, right?" he confirmed, "How you got here, the possibility of Ace and your abilities transferring to each other, and Luffy's precognition. They have to somehow be related with each other, I'm sure, and with what's going on with Blackbeard, as well. We can't rule that out."

Portgas nodded, motioning with his hands for Marco to go on.

"Therefore, our first step would be to get Ace back. I will be assuming that these events will reflect upon what had happened in your world, Portgas," he continued. "So, Blackbeard's current step would be to turn Ace in to the government, and we have to stop that from happening. Then we can confront Blackbeard, and hopefully that'll give us a lead on all the other things that's been happening."

"And how does that exactly work?" the former pirate questioned.

"My current theory is that you came into this world because of the Blackbeard in your world. My suspicion is that his Yami Yami no Mi powers triggered some dimensional warp or rift, which somehow ended up tossing you over here. And something like that would disrupt the natural balance, and would cause other strange things to happen, although the extent of the damage would be unknown. That _might _be how your brother got his precognition, but this is all resting on a theory over a theory. And that same effect caused Ace's abilities to be transferred onto you, because the two of you are the same. Obviously this is just a vague idea of mine, and it might be completely wrong for all I know. Even if this has nothing to do with Teach, we still have to track them down anyways to save Ace before they send him off to Impel Down."

"Even if he does end up in there," Portgas said, his voice sounding more optimistic, "we have better odds of breaking him out than last time. Luffy did it alone with the help of a small rag-tag team, since his crew was blasted across the world everywhere."

At the sound of his name, Luffy perked up again. "What about me?"

"I'm just saying that we probably shouldn't be _too _worried about Ace's safety right now," Portgas explained. "I'm sure he'll be fine. He's pretty strong, even if he's sick as hell right now… err… that sounds awfully conceited of me…"

Marco cracked a small grin. "Anyhow, I'll contact the old man and we'll see what stuff we can pull up, eh?"

Luffy leapt up, looking more energetic. He took off running to the door, and right before he vanished through, the teen yelled, "I'm gonna go to Zoro's! See ya!"

"You've got one flighty brother. Well I'll be off as well," Marco commented, taking a step forwards, then stopped when he thought of something. "Don't you dare do something stupid while I'm gone! If you're anything like Ace, you'll go off to search for Blackbeard, and the last thing I want is _two _Aces with their asses handed by that traitor."

Portgas stuck out his tongue cheekily. "Love you, too."

As the door slammed close for the final time, he poked his head out of one of the still intact windows to see Marco hurrying along the sidewalk. Once the older had fully disappeared from his vision, Portgas dashed to his other self's room. Lucky for him, the computer was still intact and on. He keyed in a few words in Google and pulled up a map of one of the districts, grinning.

Did Marco honestly expect him to listen?

Portgas had a vague idea of where Blackbeard would be in, if everything was going according to what had happened in the other world. The first thing he would've done would be to transfer Ace to where their transport would be waiting in, in the underground, where laid a gigantic sewer-like water system that the mafia and Marines utilized to get around faster than above ground like the oceans back in Portgas's world. He speculated that their ship would be in the approximate area of where he and Teach had faced off, and would be steadily heading towards Impel Down at a fast pace. Like he had guessed, the maps were nearly identical to his navigation maps, although set as cities, not islands.

The former pirate quickly located the island that he was captured on, tracing a route to Impel Down. He pulled out the iPhone from his pocket and enabled the GPS, setting the course he'd take. The transportation was a problem. Portgas didn't dare to take Stryker the motorcycle, since he didn't know how to ride one, and he wasn't sure if his counterpart also had Stryker the raft.

Regardless of that obstacle, he headed downstairs anyways for the nearest entrance to the underground, breaking into a sprint. The more time he lost, the harder it'd become to catch up, and by then Marco would be at him like there was no tomorrow. On a second thought…

He ran back up again and scribbled a small note, tacking it on the door.

* * *

To say Ace felt like utter shit would still be an understatement in his current situation. On top of his already sick self, there were now several bloody injuries and bruises, not to mention some broken bones thrown in. Blackbeard had roughed him up pretty badly, then threw him into a small cell in the man's ship reinforced by seastone. He couldn't do much other than wriggle around because of his tightly shackled wrists and feet. There was even a collar on his neck attached to the wall, like they expected him to bite them or something. Those bastards went overboard with trying to restrain him.

He swallowed the bile rising in his throat. If he was going to puke, it was going to be all over him, and he didn't need to feel worse than he already did.

That damned traitor.

Ace should've tried to contact Marco in some way, or ran when Teach had broken into his house. He had completely forgotten about the powers of the Yami Yami no Mi because of his disoriented mind. Or actually, if he had actually listened to his other self, he wouldn't have gotten into this big mess in the first place because he wouldn't have been too weak to do shit.

However he thought of it, everything seemed to boil down to his fault and his stupidity.

He shook his head vigorously. He seriously needed to stop wallowing in self pity or self hate and instead, focus on somehow _escaping this hellhole_. He scanned his little cell and referenced to the view he had of the ship as he was dragged through. First things first, he needed to get rid of the restraints somehow, but there were no tools available for him to pick the locks, let alone move. And if he achieved that feat, there was a small window in the cell, but was too high to get just by jumping, and the seastone cut off all of his powers.

Another problem with the climb-out-of-the-window thing was that he was definitely going to hit the water if he somehow managed to get out, and thanks to his Devil Fruit powers, he couldn't swim and would just drown. If by some other miracle he swam to safety, his captors would notice and he'd get dragged back to his prison all over again, making the effort useless.

Was it possible for him to climb out the window, maybe, a hanging structure on the ship? He could cling to it and judge his jump…

Ace's plotting was disturbed by heavy footsteps that thumped down the stairs, further confirming that he was in the most bottom layer of the ship, which also meant he was technically under water. Filing that information in, he promptly crossed out the option of smashing through the walls.

The door swung open creakily, then slammed shut with a loud clang. "Enjoying ourselves, commander?" Teach said in a smug tone. A ring of keys dangled noisily from his belt. Ace eyed them, wondering which one was the key to his cell.

To ignore or not to, that was the question. Hmmmm… Ace went with don't ignore. "Everything's so nice here, and the shackles are so very comfortable," he replied, his voice thick with sarcasm. Usually what he said would be wittier than that, but with his tired mind, that was the best he could think of. "But I don't understand the collar."

Blackbeard laughed. "Zehahahaha! There's a word called precaution, my friend."

Ace scowled. "Don't call me your friend. And I actually do have a brain to know what precaution means, unlike a certain fat and idiotic bastard staring right at me." C'mon, Ace, you could think of better insults!

Blackbeard seemed unfazed. "I remember you biting one of the crew before," he stated matter-of-factly.

The flush on his face deepened, and it wasn't because he was feeling sicker. If only he could break free and wipe that smug expression of the traitor off, then preferably drown him and cut his head off… Ace took a deep breath. He had to calm down. "Soooo…" he began casually, as if starting a conversation between an old friend, "we're heading to the Marine headquarters, right?"

There was the slightest bit of surprise and suspicion on Teach's face. "How do you know that?"

Ace couldn't tell him that it was because of his other self, could he? He decided to exploit this factor. "I know exactly what you're planning," he said quietly, hoping to scare his enemy while he had the chance. "And I'll be happy to say that your plan is failing, because I already have backup." The second part was hopefully going to be true. He was going to have to rely on Portgas and the old man to break him out of this ship, because there wasn't any possibility of getting out himself.

Blackbeard was beginning to look horrified. "You don't know that," he insisted, like he was trying to persuade Ace to think otherwise, but more like he was trying to convince himself.

"You originally wanted to get Monkey D. Luffy, but it was hard to get him," Ace said, a grin spreading across his face. "So you settled for me."

"Where did you hear that from?" the other snapped, his voice sharp.

"From a little birdie," Ace replied cheerfully. "And I know that you're doing all this so you could fill the empty spot for the Shichibukai, because of the big bounty on me." He thoroughly enjoyed how creeped out his enemy was beginning to look. "You also have a bigger motive behind all of that. You're only doing this so you have access to Impel Down, where you want to gain new crewmates from."

"That is-" Blackbeard began in heated tone, but was interrupted by a loud crash and the screaming voices of his crew.

Their heads both snapped up to where the sound was coming from. There were slams, crashes, and yelling, giving away the fact that they were fighting someone.

The identity of the intruder was clear when they heard a cry of, "Hibashira!"

Ace should've known his other self would have gone here, and from the sounds of it, he was alone.

Meanwhile, Blackbeard had an utterly perplexed expression. "There can only be one Mera Mera no Mi user," he muttered dubiously. "How is this possible?" He turned his attention back to his prisoner. "Do you know what is going on?"

Ace snorted. "Even if I did, and whether or not I do that's for you to guess, I wouldn't tell, would I?"

Teach growled darkly in frustration. "I'll be back," he said before stalking out of Ace's cell. He didn't get very far when a flying sidekick sent him tumbling unceremoniously back down the stairs. Teach rolled around in pain, clutching his belly where the flaming foot had struck.

The attacker stepped fully out of the shadowed stairs with a big grin on his face. Portgas was decked out in his pirate gear (and that left Ace wondering curiously where he had gotten some of the missing pieces from, and settled with the theory that his other self raided his closet), his fists lit with bright flames. He walked up to Blackbeard, smirking. "Surprised?"

The traitor's mouth hung wide open, and he looked at Ace and back to Portgas again and again. "How?"

"Like hell we'll tell you," they said in unison, and Portgas kicked Blackbeard hard in the head, successfully knocking him out.

* * *

_Meanwhile__, back in Ace's apartment…_

Marco was staring at the note tacked to the door in disbelief, his hands clenching together. "What the hell!" he screamed out angrily.

_Hey Marco,_ the note said, _I've gone to go save Ace because I have an inkling of an idea of where he is right now. Don't kill me. :P Oh by the way if somehow this fails go to here _(an address was inserted)_, and follow the road to Impel Down. I'm pretty sure that's where Teach is._

Don't kill him? That brat's just asking for a beating. The phoenix muttered a long string of colorful words under his breath, cursing Portgas for his foolish and hotheaded behavior. He had a bad feeling that it wasn't going to end well, and the idiot was probably going to run into trouble. Actually, revise the statement into "definitely going to run into trouble". He always did.

Marco took out his phone once more to contact Luffy this time. The kid would probably appreciate knowing where his brothers were.

It ringed once before someone picked it up. "Hello?" a gruff voice answered. It was definitely not Luffy.

"I'd like to speak to Luffy, please," Marco replied politely.

"Oh Luffy. Well uhhh… He's kind of busy right now… I can pass the message for you," the man offered. "What's your name?"

Marco briefly debated over whether to give his name out or not. This man was probably part of Ace's brother's crew, but he couldn't be sure. "Just tell him Marco."

"First commander of the Whitebeard family, huh," the man muttered under his breath, but it was loud enough for the phoenix to hear. Guess he was part of Luffy's crew after all.

"Yes," Marco responded, not as polite as before. "I've got the coordinates for where Luffy's brother is at."

"Oh yeah? T-"

Marco winced as he heard the sound of someone slamming into the wall, and a lot of static because of what he assumed to be the phone dropping. "You know where Ace is?!" was the excited and high pitched voice of Luffy. It would seem that the teen had pushed his crewmate roughly away just to get the phone. Marco pitied the poor fellow who just got to know the wall too well, and then heard a yell of "What the hell was that for, damn it!?" He couldn't help but chuckle.

"Calm down, Luffy," he told the younger. "I'll send a text message to you with the coordinates. Get there fast, alright? There's… a situation going on right now over there."

Then the line went dead. Marco sighed. That kid seriously rushed too much.

* * *

Portgas jingled the keys in a frustrated manner. He wondered why Blackbeard would have _so fucking many _keys on this ring. It was almost impossible to pick out the right one to unlock the cell door, not to mention he also had to find the matching ones to unlock the cuffs. Because of the inlaid seastones in the room, his powers were limited, so he couldn't just melt the cell down even if he wanted to.

"How about the one that's two on the left of the one you just tried? I think that was the key," Ace, who looked worse for wear, suggested tiredly. He kept glancing at the still form of Blackbeard, hoping that he wasn't faking his unconscious state, or he won't wake up soon.

"Aha!" Portgas cried triumphantly, having finally found the correct key. He pushed the rusting door open, ignoring the loud creaking sounds it was making and made a beeline to Ace. "Now…" he muttered, "to find the ones that unlock the stupid cuffs. Gotta say, the collar looks stellar on you."

"If it wasn't for the fact that we're kind of in a rush, I'd bite you," Ace said threateningly.

"Sure, sure," his other self replied, unfazed. He flipped several keys around, settling for a fairly small bronze one. Inserting it into the hole of the collar, he twisted. The lock snapped open.

Ace coughed slightly. "Finally. Enough air. The damn thing was choking me. How did you know it was that one, anyways?"

There was a moment of silence. "Well…" Portgas finally said awkwardly, "I… had one of those on one of the times I was captured by the Marines, and I remembered clearly how frustrated Marco got to find the key for it."

"Oh," was the other's lame response. Another click sounded, springing the handcuffs open. Ace was surprised at how chaffed the skin around his wrists already became, just half an hour after been imprisoned. It must've been terrible for his other self when he had the restraints on for all the time he was captured in Blackbeard's ship and Impel Down.

The final shackles popped open quickly, and Ace immediately stood up and stretched. "Thanks."

"Don't thank me yet. We still gotta somehow get out of this place," Portgas warned.

Ace grimaced. "Right…"

As the two were about to run up the half broken stairs, a voice behind them said, "Stop right there!" Blackbeard forced himself to a sitting position and was glaring daggers and him, while a hand rubbed the large bruise that was forming on his chest. "You two aren't going anywhere."

"Says you," Portgas shot back. He tugged on his other self's ruined shirt. "Run," he whispered softly, "I'll stop him. You first escape and try to contact Luffy or Marco. They should be on their way here already, if I'm not wrong." Reaching into his pant pocket, he pulled out the iPhone and slid it into Ace's hands.

Ace was about to protest until he caught the look on the former pirate's face. It was filled with hatred and coldness, and his hands had become tightly clenched fists as he stared Teach down, his entire body tensed for battle. Ace understood why Portgas would want to fight Blackbeard so badly, even if the odds of winning were uncertain. His other self would only feel insulted if Ace insisted to stay and fight with him.

For a split second, he felt an overwhelming amount of fury and the thirst for revenge, combined with a dozen other emotions that briefly covered his entire mind. Was that what Portgas was feeling right now? He mentally added that to the growing list of unexplained mysteries since his other self came.

"Good luck," he said before turning around, sprinting up the stairs.

* * *

Zoro eyed his captain worriedly as Luffy paced back and forth in the galley, an anxious expression on his face. The teen looked more worried that Zoro had ever seen him as they steadily approached their destination, given to them by the first commander of the Whitebeard Famiglia. Luffy played around with his straw hat absent-mindedly, and for the first time, Zoro missed his loud voice and crazy antics that he usually did at school and when they were doing mafia work.

The swordsman took another large swig of the bottle of sake in his hands, adjusting his seated position in the corner of the wall. The rest of the crew was all in the galley, as well, each of them looking nervous, especially Usopp, who's legs were shaking.

Their complied information of Blackbeard was a fearsome one. He was an individual capable of taking down Luffy's monster of a brother down single-handedly, and had, apparently, indirectly started one of the greatest wars of all times between Marines and pirates in the other Ace's world. Zoro, for some reason, didn't feel all that apprehensive, but it might've been because of all the alcohol he was consuming that made his brain a little numb.

It had been a long time since the Sunny was so quiet.

Zoro ran a hand down one of his blades, tracing the patterns on the hilt, and his ears picked up sounds of explosion coming from afar.

"We're almost there," Nami said, as if on the cue.

They raced to the prow and were greeted with a sight they didn't expect.

A large smoking hole was in the middle of the enemy ship, the edges still burning, like someone dropped a bomb onto it, although the ship should've been blown into pieces. They could hear indistinct voices that sounded panicked and saw flares now and then, combined with the sounds of several guns firing.

Looks like someone already started a fight. Zoro dared to bet all his money that the counterpart of Luffy's hotheaded brother had done so from the fact that the ship was smoking, and he had heard a yell of "Hibashira", giving away Firefist's identity. This was probably what Marco meant by situation.

"Looks like the fight started without us," he commented with a lazy grin, feeling excitement beginning to form. To him, the bigger the challenge, the better. His swords were calling for blood.

"You don't say, shitty marimo," Sanji scoffed, taking a long drag of his nearly spent cigarette, then dropping it onto the ground. He reached into his pockets for another.

"A-are you n-not scared at all?!" Usopp stuttered. Like usual, he seemed like he was going to faint any moment at the prospect of a tough battle, with his body shaking in fear, and his teeth clattering together. Chopper looked equally frightened, although it was more like because he just got scared by some stories the sniper just told him than at the prospect of a tough opponent.

Before Zoro had the chance to reply (he wasn't intending to, anyways), his captain yelled, "Let's go!"

The Thousand Sunny was side to side with their target's ship, with a small distance in between that could be cleared easily with a large leap. Even so, Luffy launched his arms forwards, getting a good grip on the railings, and flew forwards right into the gaping hole that lead to the inside.

With a war cry, the rest followed, leaping over the gap between the ships and into the chaos of battle.

* * *

**Took me half the time than the last to get this update out, yay me! I feel like it might've been a bit rushed, but oh well. I tried writing in more than one POV so hopefully it wasn't super messy and confusing ****or anything, because I still tried to keep it organized.**** Hope you guys all enjoyed it!**

**I would love it if you reviewed, of course. So if you please… no need for paragraphs. Even just a sentence would be alright for poor ol' me. And you get a cookie again! **


	11. Change

**Disclaimer : I own One Piece! Eat that, Oda! Wait no, I like Odacchi, so forget I ever said that. Nope, still don't own it after all.**

* * *

Portgas's emotions were boiling over, threatening to spill and break his current calm façade. He had waited for so long for an opportunity like this, to finally get revenge, as with the lives lost in the Marineford war, all triggered by a single selfish and evil man who would stop at nothing to reach his goals. This bastard had screwed up his life, and of many others who had died in this war. But he did take in some satisfaction at the fact that Teach was still puzzling over the entire two Aces thing, and he felt an overwhelming desire to just let the man remain confused if it wasn't for the suspicion that he might know something about how this situation had occurred in the first place.

"Wait… there are two of you?" he asked, his face a comical expression of confusion.

Portgas chose not to reply. "I'll just ask you once," he said in a low tone, staring intensely at Teach. "Did you intend to become a Shichibukai just so you could get to Impel Down?"

"You know that, too?" the other exclaimed, mouth gaping open. "How?!"

The younger snorted derisively. "Fuck you," he muttered. And with that, Portgas charged towards his enemy, fists lit on fire.

Blackbeard side-stepped the move easily, and using Portgas's momentum, he grabbed onto the fist and flipped him over backwards. At the same time, a black flame-like substance erupted on his hand covered the other's wrist.

The former pirate let out a cry of surprise as he tumbled through the air, before regaining his control and performing a somersault, landing on his feet again. He observed his wrist carefully, noticing a small burn mark on there. He flexed his hands experimentally, feeling that strange freezing feel when Blackbeard had touched it. Once again, his powers were nullified by the large man's Devil Fruit powers. Portgas scowled. Oh well, his combat skills would have to do, then. There was no point repeatedly attacking with his powers only to have them neutralized. "Oi, Blackbeard!" he called out. "Don't you think it's a bit cheap to use your Yami Yami no Mi powers?"

Teach laughed in response. "I am only using what I have."

"Chivalrous as ever, I see," Portgas mumbled to himself. It was worth a try, at least. With a cry he ran towards Teach once more, this time relying solely on his combat skills and the handy knife he always carried with him. He took a swipe at the other's belly before he had time to react. The knife carved a deep cut, and blood spurted out of the wound. He dropped down in shock, his hands covering the cut. "What?" Teach gasped out. He must've forgotten about the knife or something.

Portgas waved his weapon in front of his face. "Did you forget about it?" he said, smirking. Then he launched a powerful spinning side kick that slammed into the other's chest, sending him flying backwards and crashing through the iron bars of one of the cells.

"You know, I do wonder who'll win in this bout," he said conversationally, casually walking up to the groaning opponent. "I'm stronger than the other Ace, you know." He brought a foot sharply down Teach's head. Portgas's mind was set on not giving him even a moment to recover. The sooner they dealt with him, the better. "You might as well give up, because we've already got plans against your plot."

"Feh," Blackbeard spat. "A man's dream never dies! I'm not going to give up until I die." With a growl, he suddenly heaved himself up and curled his hand around Portgas's throat.

The former pirate spluttered and choked as he felt his air supply get cut off, and was lifted above the ground. He thrashed out desperately, trying to tear the hand away, his knife falling out and clattering uselessly onto the stone floor. His habit of anger clouding his head really had to stop before he killed himself again. Despite the efforts, the hold merely tightened, and he began to see stars floating in his vision.

Blackbeard sneered at Portgas's pathetic attempts to free himself. "Don't get cocky," he said.

Portgas's head whirled rapidly, trying to think of some sort of solution. They were now in one of the cells, surrounded by seastone, so none of them could use their powers. If he could use that advantage to free himself somehow… He felt lightheaded from the lack of oxygen and fought to stay conscious.

Oh yeah.

He remembered a certain tactic, dirty, but effective nonetheless that he had picked up from his adventures before he joined the Whitebeard Pirates. He closed his eyes and let go, falling limp and slowing his breath so it was like he had lost his fight. When at a disadvantage, play dead to survive. That was one of the most important rules in surviving the wild. He could only hope Teach would buy his act before he _actually _blacked out.

A few seconds ticked by, and Portgas was beginning to panic silently in his mind, until he felt the grip go slack. He fell on the floor with a loud slump, wincing internally when his head slammed harshly against the cold seastone. He took in breaths slowly, still keeping the unconscious act. A large foot kicked him in the side and he rolled over.

A few more seconds ticked by in silence.

Portgas jumped to his feet abruptly and decked Blackbeard's astonished face squarely. The force was enough to send him flying back into that seastone cell. "Don't underestimate me, idiot," he said between taking in deep breaths. His lungs were still screaming for more air from such a long time without enough.

Teach began chuckling despite the blood streaming steadily down both his nostrils. "I would never dream of it," he laughed.

Portgas formed a hand into a gun and began firing fiery bullets at Blackbeard who laid there motionless. He coughed up blood as they hit.

"Tell me why I shouldn't kill you now," Portgas said harshly. A shot rang out, and he cried out in surprise as he felt a bullet pierce through his shoulder. The former pirate fell to his knees in pain, clutching his wound as blood steadily streamed down his shoulder. The bullet must've had seastone components in it like all other guns in this world. He turned around to see a smug looking man wearing a pair of strange glasses and a hat with two sides protruding oddly, a rifle slung over, and over the other was… well…

Ace looked even worse than before, his previous wounds reopened with the blood flowing sluggishly out, and a large black eye. He was deathly pale. Smiled sheepishly and coughing more blood up, he apologized weakly, "Sorry. Four against one, I couldn't do too much about it."

"Zehahahahaha! Likewise, Ace, you shouldn't underestimate me," Blackbeard said as he laughed heartily, slowly getting up on his feet again.

"Why you..." Portgas growled, glaring at the large man out the corner of his eye. _Fuck this seastone, _he thought furiously. It completely sapped his strength, making him wonder just how much of the bullet's component was made out of that deadly material. He barely fought back a scream as two more ripped through his other arm and his knee.

"Either you give up and surrender," Van Augur said, pointing his rifle to Ace's temple, "or I could kill him, then you."

"Don't worry about me," Ace rasped, panting heavily. "Just… escape."

Portgas glared at his other self. "I'll never do that," he hissed. His gaze flicked from Blackbeard back to his other self, unable to make a decision. If he wanted to be stubborn, it was guaranteed that both of them would end up dead and doing so would sure help a lot in their situation. But he didn't know what they'd do if he actually did surrender. Kill them anyways? He knew he had to take the chance, as risky as it was. "I-"

"HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!" someone cried out of the blue. They looked up in fright as they heard a very loud crash as if someone had just launched themselves into the ship and slammed accidentally into one of the fragile wood parts, which in here was actually the case. "Ace!" the same person yelled. "Where's Ace!?" This was followed by another war cry, and several more thumps were heard, probably more people who had arrived along with their leader.

Portgas and Ace exchanged glances, recognizing the voices all too well. Blackbeard's crew rushed upstairs in a hurry, ready to face the new opponents. The former got up shakily onto his feet, using one of the metal bars of a cell as support. "Looks like the enforcements have arrived," he said with a grin.

For the second time of the day, Teach held the expression of utter shock. "How?"

In a blur of motion, Portgas was in front of him and had a fist raised. "Like I'll ever tell you," he said, knocking the man out again.

Using a hand to try to stem the increased blood flow in his arm, he added to his other self, "Now, let's get out of here at last, shall we?"

* * *

When Luffy first jumped into Blackbeard's ship, he had no plan whatsoever, as usual. The only thing the rubber teen was focused on was saving his brother, who as he heard from Marco, was supposedly kidnapped and brought to this place. Whether it was true or not, he didn't know, but decided to take a shot anyways. Marco's intel was usually correct, wasn't it? And so with his mind focused solely on looking for Ace, he scanned the ship, but was confused to see it empty, along with several signs of a recent battle.

"Ace! Where's Ace!?" he yelled out, unable to see anyone. Was it a false alarm? Did they leave already?

His question was quickly answered as he saw four strange looking people run up the stairs in the corner of the room. Luffy laughed at their appearances, finding them amusing. There was one with a long face and glasses that looked even weirder than Usopp's, with an equally strange hat that had two protruding edges. He was super tall as well, with a large gun slung over his shoulder. The second was really big, with large muscles in his arms and an equally big chest, completely out of proportion with his thin legs. He was also wearing a mask. Another had long blonde hair with blood dribbling out of one side of his mouth, covered in a furry black coat, and he looked as if he was going to pass out. Luffy spent a bit of time trying to figure out whether the last person was a guy or not, because of the long hair and earrings, and the sickly pale skin and ruby lips. He settled on 'male'. "Wow, you guys. You look really funny!" he said.

They stood there, frozen momentarily. "Huh?" the big one finally said.

Luffy cracked his knuckles, feeling adrenaline beginning to pump through his veins. He tilted his head. "So you guys are the ones that kidnapped Ace?" he asked simply, stretching an arm. Without waiting for a reply, he pulled it back. "Gomu Gomu no Pistol!" His fist slammed into the wall as the four of them jumped away swiftly enough.

Hearing more thumps behind him, he grinned. The rest of his crew was here now. "You guys," he commanded them, "take out these people here. Imma go downstairs to get Ace."

"Alright!" they replied in unison as they got into battle stances.

Luffy rushed off to the stairs, and Laffitte, in an effort to stop him, tossed his cane at the teen. In a flash, Zoro had stopped it, all three swords already in place. "Don't try to stop my captain," he warned, eyes flashing dangerously. He kicked the cane back to the pale man. "Your opponent will be me."

Before Luffy disappeared in the stairs, he turned around and called out, "Thanks, Zoro!" As he raced down, he nearly tripped, but regained his balance just enough before he tumbled and rolled the rest of the way. "Whoa, that was close," he mumbled to himself, adjusting the straw hat to make sure it wasn't going to fall off.

A wave of relief washed over him as he finally cleared the last steps and saw Portgas and his brother, injured but alive. Jumping off of the last stair, he pounced on Ace and enveloped him in a large hug, wrapping his rubbery arms around him several times as if afraid he'll slip through his grasp. "You're alright!" he bawled into Ace's shoulder.

Portgas, with a small grin on his face, quietly slipped away back up the stairs, giving the two siblings some much needed alone time.

Ace patted Luffy's back awkwardly. "Hey there," he said soothingly, "I'm fine. You don't need to cry."

The younger teen sniffled loudly. "But I remember you dying in the other world. I saw it!" he choked out through sobs.

Ace was alarmed to see his brother acting like this. "But I'm not dead," he said again, still patting his back.

A few moments passed as Luffy took several deep breaths to calm his hysteria. When he finally got his emotions under control once more, he said in a shuddering voice, "Ace, please… promise me you won't die…"

Ace smiled slightly, though he felt the edges of his vision darken as fatigue caught up with him. "I promised you before, remember?" he reminded his brother softly, "when we were younger… when Sabo died…" He chuckled. "Idiot… worry about yourself! I'm much stronger than you. Listen, Luffy. I will never die."

"You promise?"

"I promise." As the final two words slipped through his lips, his fight with consciousness lost and sweet darkness overtook him. He felt himself slipping through…

… "_Ace… I want to be stronger… more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, more _strong! _Then I could protect anything and everybody. I don't want to lose anyone. So please, Ace, don't die!"_

"_Idiot! Worry about yourself! I'm much stronger than you. Listen up and remember this, Luffy. I will never die. Sabo made that request, too. I promise. I will never die. There's no way I'd die and leave behind a weakling of a brother like you! I'm not all that smart, so I don't know what killed Sabo. But whatever it was, it was something opposed to freedom! Sabo died without ever gaining his freedom… But the two of us, who exchanged the sakazuki with him, are still alive. So listen up, Luffy! We will definitely live life without regrets!"_

* * *

Portgas D. Ace as a pirate had never had such a nerve wracking fight before, save the Marineford war. He didn't know how strong his other world brother's crew was, and knew from watching the battles going on that they had the slight upper hand. However, any moment Blackbeard could wake up, and once he does, they'd be all screwed. He was incapacitated for battle, and the other Ace was on the verge of passing out. He honestly wasn't sure how strong Luffy's band was, and how they'd match up Blackbeard's gang. It worried him that the traitor would wake up and then all would be over.

Sadly, there wasn't much that he could do without a whole lot of pain. He cursed the guns, and his own carelessness. Dodging another bullet, the former pirate believed it would be a good idea to check up on his other self and Luffy again. Just as he took a step back, he saw the rubber teen climbing back up the stairs with his brother slung over him, a worried expression on his face.

Portgas eyed his counterpart's body curiously, wondering if he had passed out. Rushing over to the younger, he asked, "What happened to him?"

"Fainted," Luffy replied, adjusting his position again as Ace began to slip off.

The older grimaced. "We have to get out of here as soon as possible. There's no chance to win this battle like this."

"I know," he replied stiffly, his face dark.

Portgas knew he hated running away from a battle as much as the former did. "There's no choice here."

Luffy merely nodded. "Retreat!" he yelled out. He rushed to the large hole they had all arrived from, clearing the gap in one large bound and landed steadily on his feet. Portgas followed his example, ignoring as his wounds screamed out to him. He winced as he landed shakily onto the adam wood, sending waves of pain through his knee.

The Straw Hats were ending their battles quickly as he saw Nami dart out of the ship as well, jumping expertly onto the Thousand Sunny and making a beeline to the steering. "Hurry up, you guys!" she screeched, her voice carrying all the way to Teach's ship.

Portgas watched in mild amusement as he watched the rest of the Straw Hat gang quickly hurry out, looking panicked. They certainly weren't scared of the Blackbeard famiglia, but were of one simple female. Franky hurried over to where the navigator had gone, and within a few moments he heard a call of "COUP DE BURST!" before the ship accelerated forward abruptly with a burst of speed, sending Portgas tumbling around the ship until he regained control again. "Luffy… what was that?" he asked, eyes wide.

"Shishishi," Luffy laughed. "It's called Coup De Burst."

The older rolled his eyes and gave up on asking the teen. "That was very obvious. Just pretend I never as-" he broke off as he suddenly toppled over sideways and feel fast asleep.

"AHHHHH!" Chopper screamed, running around in circles as he threw his hands up in the air in fright. "Is he dead?! Oh no! Ace is dead! Someone get a doctor!"

Everyone else stared at him like he was out of his mind.

The furry doctor stopped mid-step, having reached an epiphany. "Oh wait, I am a doctor!" The statement resulted several smacks in the forehead as he ran over to Portgas's still body and pressed a stethoscope to his chest, listening for the heart beat. "He's alive!" he announced, relieved.

* * *

Ace woke up to the heavy scent of anesthetics and over-cleanliness. He blinked his eyes open, not quite recognizing his pale white surroundings and unfamiliar walls, yet oddly familiar at the same time, as if he had been here before. Struggling to sit up, he realized that his hands were wrapped in gauze and hooked up to IVs, and noticed that bandages also covered his body. He came to a conclusion that he was in a hospital bed again for the second time of the week.

Looking over to his left, he saw his other self sitting up in the hospital bed beside him, bandaged as well, especially the neck, where he had previously seen a purple, mottled bruise around. Portgas was staring out the window in front of him with a faraway glance on his face. He turned to face Ace as he noticed he was awake. "Good sleep?" he said with a wry grin.

"I do feel a lot better," Ace admitted, feeling slightly guilty. "I'm sorry. It's probably my fault for being a stubborn idiot and not wanting to rest like I should and get better. If I wasn't sick, I would've-"

His rambling was cut off abruptly by his other self. "Don't say things like that," Portgas said sharply. "Things that happen are never anyone's fault, unless it was their intention to cause what had happened, or if their intention was never good."

This was one of the times where Ace felt as if he was younger and less experienced than his counterpart, even if they were the same person, albeit from different worlds.

The former pirate sighed heavily. "I've been meaning to say this to you ever since we ended up in the hospital."

"Wait, how long have I been asleep?" Ace asked, hoping he hadn't fallen into a coma again like last time.

"A day," Portgas responded. "Anyways, I want you to remember what I'm going to say next."

Ace nodded, gesturing for his other self to go on.

"There are going to be times when you think you should step out and offer yourself in exchange for the safety of your friends and nakama, when you want to sacrifice your own life for the sake of theirs so they may live on as you die. Never play hero when it's not absolutely necessary." Portgas's tone was grim.

"What do you mean?" Ace asked softly, half afraid of the answer for some reason.

Portgas bit his lip. "Just… unless it's whether you live or they die with absolutely no way out, don't ever sacrifice yourself. Don't be the hero. You don't need to."

It felt strangely childish as the word "why" slipped from his mouth.

"It's like yesterday, about the situation with Blackbeard. You didn't care whether you died or not as long as I got out of there. Isn't that what you felt?"

Ace hesitantly nodded, unsure what this was going.

"You shouldn't have done that. There was a way out. It wasn't necessary. Think about it, when you're gone, what will you do about the ones who cared about you, the ones who loved you? They would feel guilty. They would mourn. They wouldn't have wanted you to die. Think of how you felt when Thatch died, and pretend that it was you who passed away instead? How would Luffy feel? How would Shanks feel? How would the old man and everyone else feel that you're never coming back? I once heard from someone, that people who take their own lives lightly don't deserve to save the lives of others." Portgas's words hit Ace full in the face like a slap to the cheek.

Like the other side, he found himself often playing the hero, offering his own wellbeing in exchange for another, never giving a second thought to how everyone else would be if he had really passed on. Never had it cross his mind that the people who loved him would feel miserable and terrible about themselves. He cringed at how selfish it sounded to him. Living in his own little ideal of the selfless hero, in reality, hurt other people more than himself.

"You're right," he whispered. "You're absolutely right."

"You promised Luffy, remember, that you would never die," Portgas reminded.

He realized if he threw his own life away so lightly like this, he would be breaking his important promise to Luffy, that he'll never die regardless of what happened. From what he had seen, the event traumatized the other Luffy, and affected his own little brother in ways he didn't expect.

"When did you come to this idea?" Ace asked quietly.

"During the war, when I realized that I did deserve to live after all, and my life meant something to people," Portgas replied, his eyes once again with the faraway look.

And once more, Ace felt strangely detached from his otherworldly counterpart. His life seemed to lack the most important experiences that Portgas had. As if he had read his mind, he added, "You'd rather not go through what I did."

Ace raised an eyebrow. "I don't believe I said it out loud," he said, confused.

The other chuckled. "It was clear on your face. I'd also rather keep my thoughts to myself, no offense."

"Of course," Ace agreed.

"Well looks like we still haven't gotten any answers from Blackbeard, have we?" Portgas murmured, half lost in his thoughts. "Back to square one again, except we still have the power to change what is to happen in this world because we know what will happen in the future."

Ace cracked a small grin. "We'll definitely change the future, and bring you back to your world again."

* * *

**Eh. Ten days. Not bad if I say so myself. These days I've been extremely busy with doing homework and NaNoWriMo. Stupid teachers decided to shower us with work because of the low test scores, and meanwhile I'm steaming in my own corner thinking how I'm still getting A's despite all the 'hard' work. I had a lot of trouble writing this chapter in the short Luffy POV, because for some reason every single piece of dialogue I type ends up either in Chinese or Japanese, and later it pretty much became that the entire thing was half Chinese and half Japanese because for some reason my mind would just not want to think in English. And so I decided to go watch some AMVs and try to get that problem adjusted and ended up watching a work of art known as: Take Ace Away by loosecontroi, a One Piece AMV. He is seriously the best AMV editor that I have ever watched, and that one was just amazing with the music and all (bonus points for using Globus).**

**Sadly I have to say it didn't give me the effect I needed and ended up feeling miserable over all of the Marineford arc again, which I just barely got over having rewatched it a few weeks ago. I shouldn't even have rewatched it in the first place, and now I'm traumatized all over again.**

**Also, the part in the middle with the "more strong"… I know it's incorrect grammar to say "more strong", but it's just different repeating "stronger" than putting emphasize on more, and the word strong, if that makes any sense. Yes, I did have to watch episode 503 again to get the exact dialogue between Ace and Luffy because I oddly like to using quotes. BONUS QUESTION! I also had another character quote himself/herself. Guess who the person is, and if you can figure which specific sentence it was.**

**Long rambling author's note, I apologize. Midnight do wonders do a person's mind. With that, I take my leave. As always, please leave a review! Doesn't matter how long it is, it can just be a sentence. Till next time. **


	12. Detective

**Disclaimer: No own One Piece. 'Nuff said.**

* * *

Portgas and Ace knew that the moment Marco stepped into the hospital room, they were in for trouble. They gulped nervously in unison and watched as the man stalked over to their beds with a furious expression on his face, hands balled into fists. He glared at them and crossed his arms. "So gentlemen," he said in a dangerously low voice, his eyes flashing, "what have you got to say for yourselves?"

"I'm sorry!" they both cried at the same time, in their sorriest expression and tone. _Please please please don't let him yell for too long¸_ they thought nervously as there was no response from the older male. They knew that he was probably constructing some kind of lecture that would leave them feeling incredibly guilty. And how would they know this? The two Aces would definitely admit that they've caused more than their fair share of trouble and had endured the yelling multiple times.

Marco took a deep breath and unclenched his fist. "I would like to punch the two of you _hard _on the head if it weren't for the fact that you're rather injured." His voice still carried that dangerous feel.

He turned to Portgas first. "… WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING YOU IDIOT?! RUNNING OFF LIKE THAT WITH NO BACK UP WHATSOEVER?!" he yelled, then coughed. "Honestly, you have no brain," he continued in a softer tone. "You _know _that you probably couldn't beat Blackbeard, not counting the fact that his _entire crew_ was also with him at the same time. It's _even harder _if you also want to bring Ace with you around, seeing as he's injured on top of being sick. I don't understand why you just don't realize _how dangerous _that is. What if both of you got killed before I got back and saw your note?! What would we do then?! Have you thought about that?"

Portgas winced and put his hands up as a show of defeat. "But you did come back in time to see it…" he mumbled in a small voice, twiddling his thumbs.

If looks could kill, then he would've just gotten gruesomely murdered by Marco. He shrunk under his blankets to hide from the glare.

"You need to stop counting on luck and running recklessly into trouble like that," Marco growled as he rubbed his temples. He just _knew _that two Aces would be trouble the first time he walked into the apartment and saw them. He transferred his glare to the Ace of his world. "Now, you could've asked for help, but your stubborn self didn't," he stated accusingly. "And I told you that you shouldn't push yourself like that. You weren't supposed to show up in the meeting last night at all, because you _barely_ recovered from a coma and blood loss, but did that cross your mind at all? Noooooo."

"In my defense, I didn't know that Blackbeard would show up like that," Ace muttered sullenly, not meeting his eye. He suddenly found the IV tube attached to his hand very interesting.

"Yeah, you didn't know. We can _never _know when an enemy's going to show up, especially in a career as dangerous as ours, yet you still push yourself despite all that," Marco retorted.

At this point, the younger decided it was better to crawl under his blankets as well.

Marco sighed tiredly and sat down on one of the chairs. "I do understand that both of you only mean well," he added in a kinder tone now. "But this reckless behavior's got to stop before you kill yoursel- err… I mean, when you actually get into deep trouble."

"Yeah, no need to rub salt in the wound," Portgas grumbled sourly under his bed sheet, the sentence somewhat muffled by the thick covers.

The first commander felt a sweat drop forming on his forehead. "Sorry," he apologized and tried not to laugh at the two's childish behavior. Moments ticked by in silence. He started tapping his feet subconsciously. When the two showed no response whatsoever, he marched right over and yanked the blankets away from the two. They squeaked in surprise and tugged them back over their heads.

Marco slapped a palm against his forehead, his patience wearing very thin. They didn't show any signs of reemerging. "It's something serious I want to talk to you guys about," he said, making sure he didn't explode in anger again. When there was still no response, he added, "It's about Blackbeard."

That word brought the two Aces out of their immature little fit, and both poked their heads out at the same time like some demented, mind-linked twins. This synchronization thing still scared Marco, though he didn't admit it openly. He was glad that he got their attention at last.

He sat straighter and said, "Before Portgas had run off to save you, we had a little conversation. We found out that Ace, your abilities seem to be transferring over to Portgas, and possibly the other way around as well. We've only managed to prove the first, but since you've been sick, we don't know if that's also happening to you."

The second commander nodded slowly, taking this in. "So you're saying that he could somehow shoot a gun properly and drive a motorcycle while doing tricks?" he asked dubiously, not quite believing it.

"Errr… probably not the motorcycle," the former pirate interjected. "I don't want to wreck it so I didn't dare to try it out."

"Thank goodness you didn't," Ace replied. "If you trashed my bike, I'll kill you even though you're me."

Portgas cringed. "That makes me happier than ever that I decided to stay away from it."

"So that's one thing we can confirm," Marco concluded. "But I don't know anything about pirates…"

Portgas thought for a moment. Then he began to sing a cheery melody, "Going to deliver Bink's sake, following the sea breezes, riding on the waves!" He tapped his finger along with the beat he was carrying out of habit.

Ace hummed along with the catchy tune with a small smile and continued with the next line. "Far across the salty depths, the merry evening sea! The birds sing as they draw circles in the sky."

Together they sang, "Farewell to the harbor, to my old hometown. Let's all sing out with a don! As the ship set sail, waves of gold and silver dissolve to salty spray, as we set sail to the ends of the sea." Both stopped at the same time as Ace frowned. "Odd…" he said. "That tune just sounded really familiar but I don't remember ever hearing it."

"Considering that I've never heard of it either, nor does it sound familiar, the theory has being proved," Marco said matter-of-factly. "But we don't have an explanation for it. I don't think science will come in use here."

Ace snorted. "Yeah, we could pull out quantum physics and talk about rainbow monkeys or whatever the hell those people come up with, I don't even know." Portgas snickered at the comment.

"With just common sense and a bit of religious thinking thrown in, I do have an idea," Marco said thoughtfully. "Maybe it's because you two are the same people, and being in the same universe somehow confuses the natural balance into thinking you guys are the same so the abilities are transferring." He shrugged. "It could be anything. Did Blackbeard say anything at all?"

They shook their heads. "Nope," they said together.

Marco winced at their unintentional synchronization again. "Can you two stop doing that?"

"Do what?" Portgas and Ace gave him a weird look.

Marco wasn't in an explaining mood so he gave up on that. "Never mind what I said. Well that just successfully killed my idea that the two Blackbeard were conspiring. Thank goodness not. Heavens knows we need another murdering traitor."

"One is enough," Portgas muttered darkly with a scowl, "though I wouldn't mind killing both at all."

Ace nodded vigorously in agreement, lighting a finger on fire and watching as the flames flicker. "I'll burn him to crisp."

The older man got up from the chair. "That's all that I really have to say. By the way, Portgas, you were entered into this hospital as Portgas D. Trace, twin of Ace. Remember that or we'd have questions raised," he instructed. "Oyaji's got the bills covered."

"Trace? Out of all names," Portgas said incredulously. "Why couldn't it be something cooler like Spade? You know, Ace of Spades?"

"Deal with it," Marco said shortly as he exited the room. Right as he was about to take the last step, he added. "Luffy's gonna visit some time later in the afternoon. He'll be staying with his crew until you two recover enough to get home."

"We understand," the two chorused in the attitude much like when an unruly child is ordered by his mother.

Marco shuddered inwardly. That really had to stop.

* * *

For the next three days, Ace was bored to death by the hospital with only Portgas to talk to excluding occasional visits now and then, and the food also really sucked. The only thing he thought was decent were the beds, that could shift positions with a small built in remote control on the sides. However, he was warned against playing with it too much, or he'd break it.

The hospital doctors finally decided he was well enough to go without the IV, and his bad case of cold had gone completely away so there was no need to drink that disgusting gloppy pink stuff again. He wrinkled his nose in distaste and felt ill just by thinking of it. Cherry flavored? More like death flavored. It didn't help when Portgas would tease him now and then about all the medicine he had to take, as the bastard was lucky enough to go without any of the above except bandage changing now and then.

However, he felt guiltily happily at the fact that his other self couldn't activate his devil fruit powers properly, possibly due to traces of seastone that still remained in his body. They would only come up as a tiny flicker and faded like someone had put it out abruptly. In fact, that was what the man was currently doing.

"C'mon!" Portgas growled, shaking his fist forcefully. There was a tiny puff of smoke that dissipated before it floated up to the smoke detector. That was all. Then, a flame lit up but disappeared as quick as it came, further infuriating the man.

Ace fell into fits of giggles again as he watched his other self struggle. "You'd have more luck swimming," he teased.

"How about I toss you into a pool and see how well you fare?" Portgas shot back. "Or maybe load you with seastone bullets."

Ace forced down the last of his giggles. "Be patient. Just wait when they clean your wound again later today. That ought to solve the problem."

"No thank you," said Portgas as he made a face. "I rather they not. It hurts. Like hell."

Just then, a man walked into the room in the standard issue doctor's outfit, a stethoscope, with a clipboard in his hands. He had a pale face, eyes that had dark circles underneath, and a small goatee. Two golden hoop earrings dangled from each ear. "Well well," he drawled, twirling the fountain pen in his hands. "What do we have here?"

Ace paled. "Tra-trafalgar Law?!" he choked. "What are you doing here?"

Portgas tilted his head to a side, thinking that this man looked slightly familiar, and the name rang a distant bell. He frowned. Wasn't he one of the eleven super rookies or something?

Law smirked and set his clipboard onto the table. "I thought there was something fishy. Two Aces… That twin excuse your stupid first commander cooked up was pathetic at best."

"That doesn't answer my question!" Ace said. "Why the hell-?"

"I work here sometimes," Law said simply. "It's one of my part-time jobs, if you will."

"Aha!" Portgas said triumphantly out of the blue. "You were one of the Eleven Supernovas or something, I think."

Law observed the former pirate curiously. "Indeed I am," he replied. "And where might you come from?"

Ace shuddered; he knew that gaze all too well. It was the 'Surgeon of Death's infamous "what an interesting specimen to dissect" look, and he prayed for this other self that he wouldn't fall victim to Law. "Why don't you leave?" he said, hoping the man would just go away _now_.

Law smirked. "That's not a good way to treat a guest is it? I'm actually here to deliver some – shall we say – interesting news for you."

Ace was doused in cold fear. What could that be that he wanted to say? "Tell me and leave."

"You guys caused quite a stir in the underground yesterday with the fight with Blackbeard, you know that? The news has already being spread all over the place, rumors have being circulating around over it, all kinds of them about you, Fire Fist. They're all pretty ludicrous really. Some people think you've managed to clone yourself, while others thought you got a second Devil Fruit, even though that is physically and theoretically impossible. But really, where _does _he come from?" He pointed to Portgas with his pen.

"Another world," the former pirate said plainly.

"Oh?" Law raised an eyebrow. "How very ironic. It seems that some of the most preposterous ones are true…"

Ace scowled. "There's no privacy at all, is there?"

Law chuckled. "Where the mafia is involved, there is no such thing as privacy. What I'm saying is, Mr. Portgas, you should be more careful with what you do. Some unwanted information may be distributed without your knowledge or intention." And with that, he sauntered out of the room, waving lazily.

As soon as the doctor was out of earshot, Ace immediately said, "That guy gives me the creeps."

"He looked like he wanted to dissect me," Portgas said with a grimace.

"Trust me, that's exactly what he wants to do," the other replied grimly. He picked absent-mindedly at his bandages, mulling over Law's words. "But I'm glad that he gave us a warning. We need to be more careful about what we do. In a world like this, we can never be too safe."

* * *

Smoker woke up in the morning feeling irritable and tired. Something told him that today was not going to be a good day. And lo and behold, a few minutes right after he sat up from his bed, there came a call telling him of the heavy destruction in one of the underground waterways under his control, apparently caused by some rowdy pirates like usual.

"Commodore Smoker!" said the panicked marine. "What do you think we should do?"

"Go and send men to fix it, of course, you idiot!" he growled and hung up, dropping his phone back onto the bed. Sadly, half of the people under his command were dimwits who never knew what to do and always relied on him to make decisions. He'd wager that they were probably all high school or college drop-outs and chose the easy way out by working for the government.

Smoker climbed out of bed and reached for his faithful pack of cigars, sticking two in his mouth and lighting them. He ran a hand through his tousled gray hair, eyeing the amazing amount of paperwork that built up. He still had to do a report about the incident that occurred two nights ago, the one with the two Yonkou meeting up. It was just his luck that the particular sector in the New World was under his boss's command, who promptly shoved the work to him.

His phone rang for a second time, and when he picked up it was the shrill voice of Hina. Before she managed to get another word in, he immediately hung up, not wanting to talk to her in his already crappy mood. It rang again just a few seconds after he had hung up.

This time it was his lieutenant, Tashigi. "Commodore, we have a problem!" she said.

"What is it?" he replied, busy organizing the papers in one neat pile so he'd have more space to work with.

"The broken waterway's more complicated than we thought, and the-"

"Just do whatever you have to do," Smoker cut her off abruptly. "I trust that you have enough brains."

"Y-yes sir!" she stammered before hanging up.

_Idiots them all_, he thought inwardly. Looking over a couple sheets, he hesitated briefly before balling them up and tossing them into the trashcan behind without a second thought. More useless things that were utterly unrelated to the topic. His boss can shove it.

Then his phone rang _yet again _for the fourth time in this past hour, and Smoker was seriously considering whether to shut the damn thing off completely before he decided to smash it against the wall. "Yes?" he said gruffly, not recognizing the number.

"Is it Commodore Smoker?" said a low voice. There was a rough accent to it, tipping off that the caller was probably not a really sophisticated person.

"Who the hell are you?" he replied none too politely.

"Zehahaha!" the man on the other side of the line laughed. "That is none of your concern, commodore. I simply would like to tell a little something interesting."

"And what may that be?" Smoker's interest piqued.

"Within the next few weeks, you can expect something big to happen."

Smoker spat out his cigars and replaced them with two new ones, breathing in the thick smoke. "Why is that?"

"I can't tell you that," the man responded, amused. "However, you can expect some things such as… hmmm… prisoners, war, possibly a new age of the underground."

"Wait, what-" Before the gray-haired man could continue, the line went dead. He immediately looked through the log of received calls, and found that it was not possible to retrace this number. It was as if it didn't exist at all, nor did the call even occur.

Smoker's first response was to alert Sengoku, the fleet admiral so they could be fully prepared for whatever that may happen. He considered the possibilities of it just being a prank call, but came to a conclusion that no punk could be that smart, or understand how the Marines really worked, and a number of other impossibilities that ruled it out. The commodore leaned back onto his chair, thinking over this situation thoroughly.

With a start he realized that this caller probably wanted him to alert the headquarters and cause a stir. He wanted the attention of the Marines, and possibly the public as well. Doing so would only help the caller in doing whatever he was up to, and from the voice of the man the commodore knew that he was probably up to no good.

Smoker smirked. That person chose the wrong person to call. If he had thought he was the good boy kind of soldier, then he was dead wrong.

The gray-haired man knew it would be best to keep it silent for a while and begin his own investigation as an independent side project. He picked up his iPhone once more and dialed a number. "Listen up, Tashigi, there's something important I'm going to tell you."

* * *

Usopp was happily flicking tiny little paper balls from the back of the classroom at an oblivious Nami. It was just another ordinary, boring Math class he had to endure, and so like always, he spent the time creating stories of his heroism and scribbling in the notebook that was meant for notes. He shot a sideways glance at Luffy, his mafia leader, out of habit to see what the rubber teen was up to. He went back to making the scrap paper balls when he saw nothing out of ordinary.

Luffy was picking his nose as always as he looked blankly out of the window, his mind clearly miles away from the current lecture. His hand spun the blue pencil round and round like a baton.

Then the sniper looked back when he realized something was off about him. Looking closer, he saw that Luffy's expression wasn't blank, it was actually serious and thoughtful. That, quite frankly, scared him. What could be so important that made Luffy _think_?!

Usopp gulped nervously, wondering what was going on with his captain's mind. The last time it happened was yesterday, and it had ended up with Ace getting kidnapped and the entire Straw Hat famiglia ambushing the crew that too Luffy's big brother away. He shivered, remembering that fight and the previous warnings of how strong that Blackbeard fellow was. He was deathly glad that the person did not show up; otherwise they would've lost the fight.

Maybe Luffy was having another vision again? Usopp wondered what kind of thing he was seeing, then, and soon became lost in thought in all kinds of things.

"Usopp!" the teacher called out, jerking the sniper from his brief revere. "Solve the next question."

Panicking, the teen looked back down onto his textbook, scanning its contents to try to figure out what question that was. What were they learning about, anyways? "Umm… uhhh…" he stammered, not sure where they were.

"Question four!" Chopper hissed from the side, elbowing him sharply in the ribs.

He winced from the stabbing pain, but was glad for the help. "Err, oh! Find the equation of the tangent at (0, 2) to the circle with equation (x + 2)2 + (y + 1)2 = 13."

The teacher looked visibly disappointed, as if she was sad that she didn't get to catch her student daydreaming. Usopp's mind once again zoned as he tuned out the rest of the lecture from the teacher, not really caring about what they were studying. It was just a whole lot of review material that he didn't need, and he devoted the rest of the time in doodling the Straw Hat mafia emblem and every other ones he could remember.

Finally, the bell rang and class was dismissed. He hurriedly packed his bags, stuffing the textbooks and materials roughly into his backpack before zipping it up and sliding it onto his back. "What were you thinking the entire time, Luffy?"

"Huh?" the teen replied, a pinky exploring the depths of his left nostril while his other hand stuffed papers in a binder messily together, then still using one hand, stick it into his backpack. "Oh yeah, just wondering how I will be if Ace died."

Usopp felt horrified. "What kind of thinking is that?!" he shrieked out.

Luffy shrugged. "Dunno."

Usopp sighed. "It's not really healthy. Anyways, wanna come to my house today? We can play Pirate Age together again! I have to show you this cool new level up I just got for my sniper skills." He hoped that distracting his best friend would bring him back to his hyper, cheery self. He congratulated himself inwardly when Luffy agreed readily and happily, a hand in his pocket already to call Ace about his impromptu plans.

Turning around to face Nami and Chopper, he added, "Do you guys want to come as well?" This idea lead him to another, and he thought he might as well invite everybody else over, since they were going to continue their ongoing adventures later that night in the Sabaody Archipelago districts, anyways.

He could only hope that this would be enough to have Luffy keep his mind off of the entire seeing the future thing, and the memories he had being seeing from the Luffy in the other world where the second Ace came from. If there was no one like the sunny Luffy to stay sane and talk to him, he might fall into a depression himself because of his eternal negativity that just didn't go away.

Oh wait. Luffy was never sane to begin with.

* * *

**This is another one of those chapters that gave me A LOT of trouble. I seem to especially suck at writing dialogues. Again, in this one, I tried to use new POVs now and then to show more perspectives than the standard two Aces. I also stuck Smoker in this chapter because I thought he was a perfect candidate to show the view of a Marine, and I didn't think it was likely that only the mafia would be dealing with the Blackbeard situation. **

**Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, and please review! I really want to know if this multiple POV thing is working or not, especially since I'm afraid I didn't nail the character personalities correctly. Thank you.**


	13. New Arrivals

**Disclaimer : New year, but I still don't own One Piece. *cries***

* * *

The moment Ace blinked open and returned to the waking world, he knew something was very wrong. The sunlight was streaming in as usual (he conveniently forgot to close the stupid curtains again) and his alarm clock was ringing obnoxiously beside his ear, reminding that he still had to wake up to make breakfast for Luffy. His bed sheets had survived his usual shifting and turning, though all kicked away too one corner. At least it didn't completely fall off, or tangle him. In short, everything was perfectly normal, and that was what bothered Ace deeply.

Mornings often began with Luffy barging into his room and waking him up violently, whether using a bucket of water or jumping on his stomach, which would result in him punching his little brother, some occasions sending the teen into the wall. Other times, his alarm clock would shake so viciously it creeps off the edge, subsequently falling on the floor or less unfortunately, onto Ace's face. The point was, this day had started out completely normally, and he knew it was only a matter of time before something ridiculous happened that would force him out of bed.

Heaving a great sigh, he dragged himself out of bed whilst making a mental note to fold the sheets properly later. He got dressed and washed up hurriedly, and the freckled man was just about to step outside of his room when he remembered he forgot to take his pill for narcolepsy. It would be awkward if he face-planted in breakfast again.

In a considerably happy mood, he emerged from his room, glad there was no disturbance from Luffy or any accidents at all in the morning, only to freeze halfway across the living room.

He had forgotten about his guest completely. And said guest was busy trying to flip a crepe while bickering loudly with his brother.

"Lu, I told you to STOP THAT!" Portgas shouted furiously, face red as he blocked Luffy's long, snaking arm that was trying to steal a piece of breakfast. However, Ace noted with surprise, his counterpart seemed to be extremely proficient at making the crepes, somehow managing to make them almost perfectly round despite claiming to not cook. Maybe it was another one of the weird ability transferring thing that was happening.

Luffy then tried to steal the bowl of fresh fruit laid on the table, but Portgas had got there before the younger did and aimed a strong roundhouse kick that sent Luffy flying. Thankfully he had landed on the sofa and not the window, or Ace would have to call the repairs again after the load of work they just put in to fix up the entire house and buy furniture. The frame was undamaged, they explained, but they had to replace some of the flooring and wallpaper that was scorched, fix up the wall that was totally decimated, and clean up all the mess that used to be furniture. All of this was finished while Ace and Portgas were still stuck at the hospital, an impressive feat. But then again, money could get you anywhere these days.

"Oi, come help me here!" the former pirate called out as he balanced two plates stacked with crepes and dodged all of Luffy's attempts to snatch a bit of the food. Ace pried their brother away and pinned the younger tightly down onto the floor as he wriggled pathetically to break free.

"Lemme go!" Luffy yelled as he struggled.

"Not a chance," Ace said, smirking and only relaxed his grip when the table was set. In a second Luffy was already out of his grasp and was seated, hand outstretched towards a jar of nutella.

Breakfast passed uneventfully with no explosions or any more window smashing, except a few times – actually, make that the entire time – where Luffy tried to steal food. Ace finally let out a sigh of relief when he watched the younger walk cheerily to school at last, accompanied by Usopp and Chopper.

"Well," he said, stretching, "time to clean up. And you're coming to work with me later."

"Mhmm," Portgas mumbled, nodding in agreement as the words just passed through his brain. Then he recalled them again. Wait. "What?"

"Yep!" Ace replied with a big grin. "You might trash my house if I'm not around, and Luffy's heading to his friend's today for a sleepover."

"Are you kidding me!? What are we doing?"

"All kinds of stuff. You know, cleaning out places, keeping up appearances of the Whitebeard Corps., piss off some annoying nobles if we're lucky." Ace shrugged.

"Nooooo!" his other self took a step away. "It looks too weird if there's two of us."

"Not really," Ace said easily, his grin impossibly widening and from his breast pocket he produced a small, laminated rectangle and waved it around. "Pops sent it to me in the hospital."

The former pirate snatched it out of his hands quickly and stared incredulously. "Is this for real?"

"That's a rather difficult question to answer," Ace snickered, "as this is clearly a forged I.D. created by one of the allied corps under the old man. But since you're supposed to be my twin, we've got the exact same birth information and we were able to reuse one of my old photos with a slight alteration. The only problem there will be is if they tried to test to take our finger prints or analyze our DNA, but I doubt that will come up."

Portgas was quiet for a moment as he examined the card carefully, then pocketed it. "I have one problem," he said curtly.

Ace raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

"I don't like being called Trace."

He burst out laughing.

* * *

_With Luffy…_

Half an hour left. That was all. Just half an hour, and this torture would be over at last.

29 minutes.

Tick tock.

He glared furiously at the clock in the front of the classroom, hoping he could somehow force the second hand to move faster, to speed time up. Hey, maybe if he fixed the clock to make it show 9:45, then class would be dismissed? But then the teacher would get angry and make him stay afterschool for detention again, and maybe call Ace to pick him up. Luffy pouted at the thought and decided not to touch the clock after all then. The detention teacher was _so _mean, but Ace was even meaner when he scolded him.

What was he going to do then? There was absolutely nothing than sitting still in a chair and listen to that boring teacher talk about boring things he didn't even understand. He thought he just heard his name been called, but he couldn't be sure. Oh well, it was probably just his imagination or something, since that's what Usopp always said when he heard noises in Usopp's parent's bedroom during sleepovers. Hmmm… maybe he should secretly flick paper balls at the teacher to kill boredom! Or he can-

SMACK!

"Owwww!" he cried out suddenly when he felt a sharp pain at the back of his head and turned around to see Nami glaring daggers at him, a hand slightly raised, indicating that she was the one that had hit him so hard. "What was that for, Nami?"

"Mr. Akioka just called on you!" she hissed.

Luffy looked up to see an angry expression on his teacher's face and gulped. So he did get called on then. Oopsies! "Hi, Mr. Akioka!" he said with a grin, all the while rubbing the back of his neck, where he was sure a bruise would form in a few minutes.

His math teacher didn't seem very amused as he scowled back. "I repeat again, Mr. Monkey," he said, annoyed as he tapped the meter stick against the whiteboard impatiently, "What is the first step of solving this problem?" He pointed the ruler to number four, which had a series of weird letters, numbers and squiggles Luffy didn't understand. Maybe the teacher was drawing with numbers?

"Ummm…" He tilted his head in confusion. There's an answer to the doodle?

Behind him, he heard Nami sigh audibly. "Take the derivative of both sides," she whispered helpfully.

That didn't make any sense to him, but okay! "Take the derivative of both sides," he repeated confidently with his usual grin, although he didn't know what he just said.

The teacher, however, was satisfied with it and moved onto the next student.

Luffy breathed out a sigh of relief and scribbled a quick "I O U" on a scrap piece of paper, passing it back to Nami. She merely muttered something under her breath which sounded like "You'll kill me one day." Luffy would never want to kill his own crew! He liked Nami! She was his awesome navigator, and without her they'd be lost every night! So why did she say he was going to kill her?

Before he had a chance to turn around, a small wad of paper hit him squarely in the face. He heard a familiar giggle and realized Usopp had tossed it at him, like always. Curiously he unfurled the paper ball and scanned through its contents.

_You're coming to sleepover at my house tonight right? _

Luffy grinned and gave a thumbs up. The long-nosed teen punched the air happily and bent over to scribble something again before promptly flicking it over to the other once more.

_We going to do anything tonight? Shipping company stuff?_

Shipping company was the slang they often used, referring to their illegal night activities that occurred every other night. Luffy thought for a moment. They hadn't gone out ever since the large fight with Blackbeard and the operation to save his brother, so it's been a week since they stopped all their adventures. The crew was meant to go to the Sabaody Archipelagos, a small city located in the waterways much like Water 7, but it was more or less underground. This place would be their final destination in Grand Line, the first half of the city, before they would have to fully submerge themselves underwater to bypass the Red Line, a nickname for the street and waterway that was heavily guarded by the marines and local police. Seeing as any gang to go over Red Line would be captured and killed, the underground had devised a way to dive all the way down into the sewage-like paths to the underwater city of Fishman, and from there directly upwards into New World.

To most it would seem like a hassle to go through all these odd procedures, and it would be a better idea to directly drive to New World, but to all of the mafia this was a sort of "rite of passage" to see which groups would prevail through all the challenges and remain active.

Luffy did realize the problem of going to Fishman, as they'll have to stay there overnight because it wasn't possible to sail in and out in one night. "Hmmmmm…" he mumbled, deep in thought. Writing a quick reply, he flicked the paper back to Usopp. _Sabaody tonight! :D_

Usopp's eyes widened. "Already?" he mouthed. He tossed the scrap back with a new message.

_Isn't it too soon? I mean, we're so wanted now because of what happened in Enies Lobby a while ago… _Luffy snickered as he read this.

_So? More interesting! :DD _A quick toss, it was back to Usopp.

Usopp frowned. _I don't want to get caught though… can we just let everything die down for a bit? And then there's that thing going on with Whitebeard and crap. _

Luffy became serious as he reread those words. He knew that they definitely didn't see the last of that fat Blackbeard guy, and he was probably still out there plotting. But then, they didn't know what was going to happen right? He shrugged to himself and swiftly wrote: _yeah but we don't know what's gonna happen sooo ADVENTURE TIME! hehe :P _

He heard Usopp groan as he read those words, and the subsequent crunching of the paper as he balled it up again and stuffed it into his bag before their scary math teacher wandered by. It was just in time, too, because their teacher had began to make rounds to make sure every student was doing their assignment.

The two ripped out a piece of paper from their notebooks and wrote down the assignment for tonight, pretending as if they were doing work and paying attention to class instead of passing notes. Luffy really really didn't want to land himself in detention again. It was Friday!

Out of curiosity he looked up at the clock and cheered silently. Twenty minutes left, yay! The rubber teen scanned through the problems he had to do and tilted his head in confusion. These were even more confusing than the stuff on the board! What's with that letter? And that weird squiggly sign? He pouted and slouched over his desk, trying to pretend the homework simply didn't exist.

"You may discuss among yourselves if you need help," Mr. Akioka called out, resulting a ragged cheer from the class. Shuffling of chairs, paper, and excited whispers among the students began.

Luffy immediately scooted to the pair of desks where Usopp and Nami sat and yelled, "Oi Chopper, over here!" He waved vigorously towards the younger who looked up in surprise, as he was completely immersed in the assignment.

"Indoor voices!" the math teacher gave Luffy the evil eye. The rubber teen shrunk down in his chair.

"So our captain proposes we go to Sabaody tonight, but I can't. Have I ever mentioned before that I have the incapable-of-going-on-weird-tree-island-places-itis?" Usopp said, knowing all too well that Luffy gathered them around here not because he needed help on homework even if he definitely did, but because he wanted to discuss their night activities. All of their classmates would be busy chatting among themselves so no one would overhear them. That was the theory, anyways, but you never knew if their teacher would lurk around.

"Yes," the other three said without batting an eyelash.

"Danggit," Usopp muttered.

"I reaaally want to go see the amusement park!" Chopper commented, his eyes filled with wonder.

"We'll have to talk to Hatchan again then," Nami said with a note of reluctance, "since he did mention knowing a coating mechanic there. It would save time."

"But one of the areas is the headquarters of the Marines! They'll recognize us!" Usopp argued, his voice beginning to border hysteria.

The orange-haired girl simply rolled her eyes in reply. "We're not. Besides, it's a Friday, it'll be a lot of fun."

Luffy laughed. "Three to one, Usopp! Majority wins!"

"We haven't asked Zoro or Sanji or Franky or Robin or anyone yet!" Usopp shot back. "I'll text them right now to ask." He was about to pull out his phone when he noticed from his corner of eye that Mr. Akioka was lingering around their area, and he was definitely able to see his phone from there.

Nami sighed. "I doubt any of them would agree with you."

"It's worth a-!"

"CLASS!"

The room quieted down completely as all eyes were turned onto a furious looking math teacher with crossed arms. His lips were pressed into a thin line, clearly dissatisfied with their less than acceptable behavior. "I will stress this again. I expect all of you to talk in an indoor voice, which means whispers and _not_ this level of loudness. If it goes to this volume again, I will strip away your privileges of working with your classmates on this assignment and add even more homework for the weekend. Am I understood?"

"Yes, Mr. Akioka!" the class chorused in unison.

They were about to go back to their conversations when the teacher added, "I also have an announcement to make for students in Politics class, as it is my responsibility to inform my students ahead of time."

Half of the class notably perked up, wondering what this announcement would be about. Maybe their evil teacher was finally switched out?

"Mr. Dyavol decided to resign."

Cheers went all around; their Russian teacher was horrible at teaching and stubbornly refused to admit it even after numerous complaints from parents, and lashed out unnecessarily harsh punishments to the students. Even Mr. Akioka, who was usually surly and grumpy, smiled slightly since not even the teachers liked him.

He cleared his throat and continued, "Your new teacher is very young and this is his first day, but he's quite an enigma and has knowledge of things that far outstrip his age. I am sure you will all find him a great person to work with, as he is close to your age."

Snickers. He shouldn't have mentioned that, as pranks and tactics to make this new teacher feel very uncomfortable on his first day were already formulating in the students' head. It was that and the fact that their math teacher just indirectly admitted he was old and out of touch with their generation.

"Treat him with respect as you would to your other teachers."

Not a fat chance.

Conversations resumed, though at a much lower volume than before.

"We're gonna get a new teacher!" Luffy exclaimed, his excitement barely contained. No more old man droning on and on, no more extra detentions and getting yelled at, no more boring stuff, woohoo! And the mystery guy was apparently around their age too, that was so awesome!

"I hope he's nice," said Chopper, looking more worried than happy. "Mr. Dyavol wasn't that bad, right?"

The other three stared at him.

Luffy was the first to break the awkward silence. "I'm hungry."

The simple two-word sentence prompted Nami to whack him on the back of his head again. "You still have a few hours to go, idiot," she said before he could pull out his lunch box, which he did very often before she'd snatch it out of his hands.

The bell then rang, and Luffy immediately jumped out of his seat, stuffing his materials roughly into his backpack. "Hurry up, Usopp! Let's go!" He bounced up and down, wishing his friend could just be faster in packing so they could see the new teacher already. The rubber teen felt lucky that his next period happened to be Politics.

"Don't forget to tell us about him later!" Nami called out with Chopper nodding vigorously in agreement as they left the room.

"I will!" Luffy responded with a happy wave. He zeroed on Usopp, noticing the long-nosed teen had finished packing everything and grabbed him tightly by the arm. "Let's goooooooo!"

From an outsider's point of view, within a second of time the duo had become a simple blur that zipped out of the classroom accompanied by a trailing scream of protest that echoed far down the halls.

* * *

He picked himself out gingerly from the crater that was created from his heavy fall. Scanning his surroundings wildly, he looked for the enemy he was just fighting for but was confused to find his location to be vastly different than where he was just now, with no one in sight. The young man could've sworn he was previously on a sandy, deserted island together with his crew in a life-or-death battle against a man he had developed a strong hate for. That man caused Ace's death. A hand unconsciously traced the X scar that crossed his chest as hatred filled him.

But firstly, he had to figure out where he was and return to his nakama again. They were going to be in danger if he left the battlefield for too long. It wasn't that he didn't trust their battle skills; Zoro and Sanji were plenty strong enough to defend the entire crew single-handedly from any kind of enemy, but they were talking about Blackbeard here. The Yonko was capable of all sorts of dirty tricks, and one of them had sent him flying to who knows where, reminiscent of the time the Pacifista sent his crew to different places.

The nineteen year old's face darkened. He really had to get back as soon as possible, before it was too late.

* * *

**(I'll apologize first for the lack updating for so long! Don't worry, it's back again after writer's block.)**

**To the stage, post timeskip Luffy! Even if his appearance is so short at the moment... I credit this fantabulous idea to angelrider13, as she thought up also putting Luffy in a mafia world seen in the mafia one-shot of The Deepest of Ties. Also, I credit an interesting term I had used in here to KitsuneFoxfire. So, we have a new arrival in this chapter, and I think it'll be safe to say there's going to be a load of drama in the next chapter. Also, the second part with Luffy is **very important**, it's not just random filler I felt like writing. It has an introduction of another canon character; not Ace though, if you think it's him. **

**Leave your guess in a review, please! :) Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!**

**~Shen**


	14. Reunion

**Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece.**

* * *

Luffy had taken up wandering around, at loss for what he should do next. Obviously his number one priority was to get back to his nakama, but he had no way of doing so as he didn't even know where he unfortunately landed himself in. Besides, his stomach was growling obnoxiously and it would be rude to ignore such a call.

He was rather confused as he walked around the alleys; the entire place was wholly unfamiliar and drastically different than the islands he was so accustomed to. Here, people dressed differently and the layout was also atypical. People carried strange rectangular devices pressed to their ear that they talked to, while others had two colored lines trailing down from their ear to disappear in a pocket, or connected to a similar rectangle in their hands. Luffy had never seen such things, not even in the hands of the Tenryuubito who had an assortment of weird accessories they often carried around (more like had their servants carry, really).

Another thing he noticed was the sky. He could've sworn it was late afternoon as he battled Blackbeard. The sun was almost at the horizon, tinting the sky a reddish-orange color, and within an hour it'll be dark. Yet here, the sky was brightly lit, the sun directly above head, meaning that it was at latest noon. Maybe that attack had sent him flying so far away from the island they were at, but that didn't make much sense either since the last time it happened, he had flown for three days and three nights. Luffy arrived here almost instantaneously.

All these facts he had analyzed and stored cautiously in his head, just in case the situation was more out of hand than he had originally believed. The rubber teen winced as he stepped too heavily on one foot, feeling his bone creak. His foot was smashed some time during the fight, but the force wasn't hard enough to fully break his stretchy bones. Regardless, it still hurt like a bitch if he put too much weight.

Hobbling along with a hand against the brick walls, he continued to navigate the ghetto streets, brushing past a number of homeless people and people smoking a strange material that didn't smell remotely like Sanji's cigarettes. In fact, it was a pretty disgusting scent and it filled most of the streets. He wrinkled his nose and coughed as he passed two others taking a whiff of the same thing.

Those two noticed his apparent dislike. The one with the crooked yellow teeth straightened up and shoved Luffy forward, forcing him to stumble a few steps. "What's up with ya, brat?" he grunted. "Can't stand us or somethin'?"

Luffy turned and only smiled. "Yeah, it kinda stinks," he replied back honestly, oblivious to the man's disgruntlement.

"Bad move, punk," the other growled, his beady eyes glaring at the younger as if to scare him into submission.

Luffy only stared back and tilted his head. Why was that guy staring at him like that? Oooh, maybe it was a staring competition! He held the man's gaze without blinking, causing the other to turn away uncomfortably.

What was with this kid?

Luffy silently cheered that he had won the contest, but his triumph didn't last long as a drunken punch came swinging his way. He ducked and performed a leg sweep as he balanced on one hand, sending that man crashing into the side. Oops! "Sorry!" he apologized as he heard the man groan in the wall, "I think I used too much strength."

The other backed up a few steps with his eyes widened in fear. "Whoa, what the fuck, man?! That was unnecessary!" He dropped the thing he was smoking to tug his buddy out from the mess, horrified to see him sporting a bleeding head injury. Under his breath, he muttered, "What the hell's wrong with kids these days? First that weird guy a week ago, now this kid! Maybe this shit's too strong."

The rubber teen observed the two warily, wondering if they were going to suddenly attack him again. The two, however, ran in the opposite direction instead, one waving a middle finger vigorously in the air as he shouted angrily, "We'll get back at ya!"

Shrugging, he simply continued his wandering, spinning his straw hat merrily away with a finger. Within another few minutes, he had reached a slightly better area, away from the worst slums of the city. An unusual looking guard post seemed to act as if it was the boundary between those areas, and he noticed with curiosity that all those people he passed on the streets strayed away from this place as if it held some hidden disease, or in this case, holier than them.

There was a large blue graffiti painted across from the guard house, depicting a cross with a funny curve. This sign was reminiscent of something pretty important Luffy had seen or heard before, but it only rang a distant bell and nothing more. This sign didn't really belong to the streets though, because he was pretty sure it was something he saw while sailing. Weird…

As he was about to take a step past the invisible boundary, he heard someone yell out exasperatedly, "My god, it's not going to happen!"

Luffy's head snapped towards the guard house in shock. Did he just…

"Ace?" he whispered the name half-hopefully and half-fearfully, unconsciously touching his scarred chest, a habit that was developed since his brother's death. The voice sounded so familiar to his ears, but it couldn't be. Ace had been dead for two long years and he remembered clearly how his heart had stopped its steady beat, how his labored breaths gradually faded away to nothing, how he had slipped away from Luffy's grasp onto the cold and unforgiving ground. Surely it was someone who sounded similar right? Because Luffy honestly would rather believe that it was someone else, and not his brother.

But that wasn't true, because staring out the window was Ace, alive and breathing.

Someone wake him up from this nightmare.

He didn't want to repeat it again. He had enough of those nights where he'd have vivid dreams of his brother alive, only to wake up feeling heavy disappointment that it wasn't real. The waking always left so much pain, and Luffy thought he had finally moved on. Apparently not.

It didn't help when this dream Ace stepped out and uttered in surprise, "… Lu…?" His voice sounded so real, exactly how Luffy would imagine him to say. His brother looked exactly as he did two years ago, not a single thing changed other than the different attire.

Luffy took an involuntary step backwards. "This isn't real."

There was so much shock and pain in Ace's eyes as he had hesitantly reached out a shaking hand.

This was too real to be fantasy.

"You're… alive?" he whispered. If this was a dream he should already wake up. Ace should be smiling like he always was, not looking so pale and frightened.

"I…" the older looked torn, unsure how to answer. "I… I thought I died."

Then with lightning speed, Luffy's fist shot out and hit Ace squarely in the chest, sending him flying backwards into the wall. When his hand snapped back, he flexed experimentally. It didn't go through Ace. He was without a doubt solid, breathing, and very much alive.

His face contorted in fury as he charged at his brother again.

* * *

Portgas had never expected his own brother to show up in this world, until out of the blue, he had waltzed by. The entire situation was too surreal for him to fully comprehend, going too fast, and one part of him registered that this Luffy was different than the one he remembered, but was definitely from his world.

This Luffy looked older than he had remembered; his face had lost the boyish roundness and his body muscle was much harder and pronounced than the lanky slim form he used to be. There was also a disturbingly large scar on his brother's chest, reminiscent of his own. Even with all these differences, Portgas could tell this was _his _Luffy because of his mannerisms. He felt very pirate-like, and how he could tell he didn't know himself. This Luffy held an air of confidence and seriousness the other in this world lacked, and he could tell from the clothes that it was definitely the pirate Luffy.

That didn't mean it didn't make sense, though. There was the big question of how his younger (was it still younger, even?) brother had even come to this alternate world in the first place.

Of course, all these questions and analysis were shoved to the back of his mind as strong emotions took hold.

An overwhelming sense of guilt washed over him as he realized that Luffy believed he was dead, like he thought as well. No one knew that he had continued to live on in another world, and no one would even think of such a strange possibility.

Luffy must've been suffering this entire time, convinced that he had passed away, and wallowed in guilt in thinking he wasn't strong enough to prevent his own brother, along with a sense of anger that the older had not kept his promise. The guilt increased when Portgas remembered he had said he'll never die, something he clearly didn't uphold through the eyes of Luffy.

In a small corner there was relief, as he saw that his sacrifice was not in vain. He had always held on a slight fear that Luffy didn't make it through his injuries, but now through his own eyes he saw that his brother had lived on.

So he didn't mind it in the least when his own brother sent him flying unceremoniously into the wall. Portgas knew he deserved it and took in the pain with a sad smile.

_You must hate me now, _he thought wistfully_, and I don't blame you._ Luffy continuously sent a barrage of attacks toward him, none that he even raised a hand to defend. One particularly strong one caught him in the stomach, forcing blood up his throat. He coughed, splattering the pavement with the red liquid. Dimly he remembered the doctor had instructed him to be careful because he wasn't fully healed yet. Oh well.

But seeing Portgas cough blood had Luffy suddenly stopped, eyes widening in horror at the sight of blood. He was even more horrified as he noticed the beginning signs of bruises forming on his brother's skin, realizing that he was the one had caused these damages.

Portgas was surprised when the younger had ended the assault, and was even more so when he launched himself onto the older and wrapped his arms tightly around him, burying his face in his chest, as if he'll suddenly vanish again. "Luffy? What-" He was cut off by hiccupping noises and the strange wetness that was steadily soaking his shoulder, coming to the realization that his brother had began to cry. Luffy's shoulders shook as he wept silently.

Out of habit, Portgas gently patted the younger's back in a soothing way to calm him, lightly humming to himself as he did so. "Shhh… stop crying…" he murmured, "everything will be alright."

"Are… are you really… alive?" Luffy choked out between sobs.

The pain-filled voice once again made Portgas's heart clench tightly together with the knowledge of just how much grief he had put his younger brother through. "I'm really alive," he reassured. "Still here."

Luffy sniffled as his sobbing became less hysterical, but he still held on tightly, tears continuing to stream down his face. "This isn't a dream then?" There was a hint of hope in his tone.

Portgas smiled. "Nope."

They remained in that position for a little longer as Portgas waited for his brother's crying to finally subside, continuing to stroke him gently in the back like he used to do for several nights after Sabo died and he returned with Dadan. He recalled how Luffy would cry incessantly in his sleep before violently waking from yet another nightmare, and he'd be the one to comfort the younger until he finally returned to a fitful sleep again. Was this what he went through again after his "death"?

"Ne," Luffy mumbled, his hiccupping more controlled than before.

"Mhmm?" he continued his mindless petting.

"Sorry… for hitting you like that…"

He resisted the urge to chuckle and instead patted him lightly on the head. "Don't worry, you know I'm tougher than that."

Luffy let out a strained laugh. "I'm just glad you're still here." His grip loosened, but they trailed to his chest and pointed to the large scar covering there. "Is that-?"

Portgas grimaced. "Unfortunately."

Their moment, however, was quickly disrupted when another voice shouted out, "The hell!? I leave for a moment and come back to see Luffy crying over you. What happened?"

Portgas cursed inwardly as he saw his very confused other self looking back and forth between him and Luffy, while Luffy seemed even more perplexed by the presence of two Aces. "This is the Luffy from my world, although from the looks of it he's aged a bit."

Ace took a long look at the new Luffy. "… Ahhh…"

* * *

Meanwhile, the other Luffy fidgeted impatiently in his chair all the way at the back of his classroom, unable to sit still at all from all the building excitement. Clearly the other students were informed of the new teacher change as they all came in several minutes before the bell rung, and there was an excited atmosphere abound as students conversed among themselves, wondering what sort of person he was. Other students who came from the first period all mysteriously refused to comment, only talking in low whispers and refused to even give out a name. This teacher apparently also knew how to hide himself well, as no one sighted any unrecognizable faces among the mass in the halls, or maybe he looked young enough to pass off as a student.

The rubber teen did hear a lot of the girls saying how "hot" he was, a phrase girls in his grade used often but he never really understood it. Were they saying the new teacher was on fire like how Ace had the Mera Mera no Mi, or was he really really warm? Whenever he asked, Nami and Vivi would just laugh at him though Vivi was nicer about it, and others simply refused to answer, claiming he was too dumb to understand what it meant. Sometimes they even joked he was gay because he didn't like girls.

His eyebrows crinkled together in confusion, because he liked girls! Sure they were really different from boys and kind of strange sometimes, but they were usually pretty and nice. Some even gave him extra lunches sometimes (but they'll run away giggling, how odd)! Unless his friends meant the "love love" kind… Luffy didn't "like" anyone like that then!

But still, fooooood! His stomach grumbled again, reminding him how hungry he was. He gave it a sad pat and told it that it'll have to wait because lunch was still a long time later, and Nami would get mad at him again for eating so early. The teacher might also give him detention like how the mean Mr. Dyavol would.

"Oi Luffy!" Usopp prodded his captain's stretchy arm with a pencil, watching in strange fascination as it just sank into the soft material. Even after constantly watching him in battle, it was still weird to see him stretch just like rubber band.

"Food," Luffy muttered in response, head filled with images of delicious steaming hot miso ramen with the fresh spinach along with bits of green onion and seaweed, thinly sliced bamboo shoots, tofu cut meticulously into cubes, shiitake mushrooms, those delicious pieces of pink and white fish cake, and of course, meat! It would be great if it was accompanied by dango with its chewy, floured skin and the sweet, fine red bean paste inside. He drooled at the mere thought of them.

Usopp launched a rubber band at his friend, which rebounded off his forehead and back onto his table. It caught Luffy's attention, though. "Stop daydreaming about food, sheesh!" The telltale signs of drooling and dreaming expression tipped off that Luffy was once again lost in the wonderful world of food.

"What kind of teacher do you think he is?"

Luffy simply shrugged and said, "I don't know." A finger was busy exploring the depths of his nostrils.

"Be serious!" Usopp brought down his thick workbook sharply onto the other's head, reveling in the satisfying _thwack!_ that resulted.

"I really don't know!" Luffy whined, hands covering the top of his head protectively in case Usopp hit him a second time, and from the fact that the workbook was still raised menacingly in the air, it was a good idea to do so. "You're worrying too much, Usopp! Relax! Shishishi!"

The long-nosed teen could only sigh and shrink in his chair, lost in ideas of strict and cruel teachers that were twice as bad as their previous had been. Hopefully, fate was on his side today and would save him from malicious and sadist faculty. He bent down his head and began to pray to whatever gods he remembered from textbooks and novels, a string of mumbling beginning to form.

Unbeknownst to him though, his question did spark curiosity in Luffy's crowded mind and began to formulate into different theories his peers usually believed him incapable of doing. He himself did wonder what kind of person their next teacher would be, as his math teacher had stated this man was around their age, so did that mean he was in his teens, or early twenties? Maybe it was Law! But the notion was quickly banished when he remembered the older man was a surgeon. Luffy had been his victim of scrutiny numerous times so the fact was deeply ingrained in him. With a pout, he wiggled his left forefinger, which Law claimed to have examined while the younger was asleep some time ago. There was the barest hint of what looked like a silvery scar, and maybe it was simply his imagination but he felt as if the scar was getting lighter every time he took a shower, and he was pretty sure the mark was very pronounced when Law first pointed it out.

Of course, he didn't realize the doctor had simply tricked him into thinking so and drew the mark himself, which would fade after several washings. And Luffy didn't like taking baths too often until Ace shoved him in forcefully and threatened to take away his meals.

The bell had finally rung, and all students' attentions were completely focused on the door that would finally reveal their new teacher. Yet as several seconds ticked by, nothing happened. No sound. No movement. The entire classroom was in a state of deafening silence.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the door swung open to reveal a frazzled student. At least, that was what one would think.

The "student" wore the standard uniform, but his stainless shirt was rumpled and untucked, tie hanging loosely around his neck. He had short and ruffled blond hair, bright blue eyes, and a sly grin. One hand twirled an all too familiar black top hat strapped with goggles. "Sorry guys!" he apologized, scratching the back of his head with his free hand as he made way to the front of the classroom. "I had trouble in the hallways."

All students chuckled except one, knowing all too well of what the newcomer referred to. Hallways during break time were always packed with people, making it almost impossible to navigate unless you were rude enough to shove others out of your path.

Luffy had forgotten to breathe as he stared at his new teacher.

Was this really happening?

How?

He blinked furiously, trying to clear his eyes. Maybe all the late nights were finally catching up with him to the point where he began to hallucinate. He was dreaming, wasn't he?

Luffy took in a deep breath as the world began to spin, reminding himself that he had to remember to breathe.

He still remembered that day when he and Ace got the letter. He cried. Ace cried. They were all devastated.

But before him stood the person that they cried for and thought had passed away to the other world and never to return.

Every part of him screamed familiarity, the face, the voice, the attitude, even though he was older.

"The name's Sabo," the older said with a big smile, "and I'll be your new teacher. Just call me that, no need for Mister and all that, it makes me feel old." He spelled out his name on the board, forming the words in beautiful calligraphy that told of an educated upbringing. Turning back to the confused students, he continued. "I'm 20 this year, holding enough degrees to be certified in teaching Politics and all that fancy stuff I don't think you guys would understand. And don't worry; I'm a whole lot better than your previous teacher."

There was relieved laughter as he stated the last sentence, their anxiety slipping away as they realized this man had a much better attitude than Mr. Dyavol.

But all of this was the last thing on Luffy's mind. He didn't care about school or teachers anymore, he only cared about Sabo.

Sabo was supposed to be dead. Not here standing and talking so freely.

Maybe he should be overjoyed that his sworn brother was alive, but anger had consumed his mind. He suddenly felt tricked, all these years that he had spent mourning over his death with Ace, all these years he felt so terrible because he was not strong enough to save the people he loved. And through all these long ten years Sabo did not contact them in any way or form, never told them that he was _still alive and breathing_. He could've. He had chances, didn't he? Was ten years not enough!?

A letter, a call, anything.

It was so unfair. Did Sabo _want_ to have his brothers wallow in misery? Sure, Luffy had moved on from his death a long time ago and grew to accept it as part of life, but it didn't mean it still didn't hurt. He still had nightmares sometimes that Ace would leave him the same way Sabo did. If Sabo never left like that, he wouldn't be damaged like this.

Why did Sabo do this to him? To Ace?

Was it _fun _for him to watch them suffer like this?

All these ten years.

He didn't even care that he had snapped his pencils into a million wooden splinters that showered onto his table, some pieces protruding uncomfortably in his rubbery hands. He didn't care if it was a classroom filled with people, that everyone'd be watching. He had already thrown rationality out the window.

He stood up abruptly, shoving his chair back and screamed out two words no one would ever imagine Monkey D. Luffy would utter, much less in such an angst-ridden and pained voice. "What the hell?!"

* * *

******Anyone surprised by the identity of the teacher? Anyone? :D **I have that funny feeling people are going to kill me over the ending. Spare me please! I still have to live on to write the next chapter! But all the begging aside, I think I failed so much in this chapter with the scene between pirate!Ace and pirate!Luffy. OTL *shoots self* That was the best I could do, since I think Luffy would act like that… I mean, I'd be like that… I don't really expect a super sappy reunion since obviously Luffy would be pretty damn furious because he'd feel cheated. The same emotions applies to mafia!Luffy since it is not every day where your dead brother shows up out of nowhere again. 

**Now I think some of you people might start thinking there was a little more going on between Ace and Luffy in the first part, but I assure you it's only brotherly affection and nothing else, since I have already claimed before that I don't intend to have yaoi here. The two are just really close, that's all. But if any readers out there would like to interpret it differently I don't particularly mind; I guess it's a little open so depending on the reader you can think of it in different ways (author is an avid fan of AceLu as well~ *shot again*).**

**And a little shameless self-advertising here… I have a (not so) new story up called Mind Wiped. The summary is: "****After Portgas D. Ace's death was staged, the marines wiped him of his memories and subsequently began training him to become the most powerful weapon of the government. With no knowledge of who he really is, Ace struggles through his new life as a loyal dog of the enemy in a secret search for his past. His next mission: terminate the Straw Hat Pirates." Check it out if you like! **

**So, until next time! I will hopefully not spend so much time trying to write the next chapter, but no promises. Review, please! :)**

**~Shen**


	15. Brother

**Disclaimer: No own One Piece.**

* * *

It was another crappy day with absolutely no leads. Grunting in frustration, Commodore Smoker balled up the junk reports and tossed it with uncanny accuracy into the overflowing trashcan by his office door, already littered with unwanted paperwork. To be frank, he did not give a single fuck if one of his soldiers just helped an old lady retrieve her cat, as there was absolutely no point in writing a measly report about it. This was one of those days where he wondered why he chose men who could be so amazingly incompetent.

Rifling through another heavy stack, he sighed again. More requests from the Marine Headquarters to deal with this and that, when he was only in charge of monitoring Loguetown. He shoved them into a small corner to deal with them later. Probably more crap with requests from sniveling nobles and their incessant complaints about the mafia ruining their property that he didn't want to hear.

His temporary phone rang. "What is it, Tashigi?" he asked immediately.

"Sir, we were unable to trace anything of the mysterious caller except that he's in the East Blue… It's been almost a week…" she trailed off nervously.

"I get it, Tashigi," he replied, lighting up a fresh cigar. At least that meant he could get his phone back at last; he was getting pretty tired of the crappy Motorola phone who knows where he managed to find it. "Anything else?"

"No sir, nothing. Whoever that person was, he's obviously very good at hiding. But we're doing our best, don't worry. We'll definitely track them down," the lieutenant promised confidently.

Smoker hung up and set the phone down. He already had his men run through a profile of the most recently active mafia members, and none of the limited profiles had matched the very vague description of the man he cobbled together. There was the possibility that the mystery caller was not associated with the likes of the underground in anyway, but he highly doubted it. Maybe it would be best if he reported to his superiors about this, as the side project was going to nowhere and only ran in circles. He dismissed the idea as quick as it came, not wanting to make a big deal out of a possible nothing.

The Motorola buzzed again. What did Tashigi need now? "What is it again?" he said, annoyed.

"How come you haven't been promoted, Commodore?"

Smoker's eyes widened, realizing it was the mysterious caller. "Who the hell are you, really?"

"There ain't no fun in tellin', is there?" the man laughed. "I thought you'd get a promotion for tellin' about the big thing that's gonna happen."

Smoker snorted and took a drag from his two cigars. "I'm not reporting it when I don't know shit about what's going to happen."

"Ahhh, that's true," the man admitted. "Well I'll tell you this: I originally wanted to capture someone to become a Shichibukai, you see. But it failed because some odd things happen. Then I managed to contact someone, and I think I'll be able to exact my revenge soon."

"I don't understand you," Smoker said. For him, though, it was now confirmed that this person was indeed part of a gang, having said that he wished to become a Shichibukai.

"Since you wanted to know more, I'll tell you a little bit. You see, there are some narcs in the Marines."

"Old news."

"Well there's a specific man who used to have a big job in the Marines, and he has shown interest in joining my crew with a few other choice additions."

Smoker narrowed his eyes. There weren't many with "big jobs", other than the Fleet Admiral and Admirals, along with a few prison guards of various jails. To think that there was someone with high influence among the Marines that was willing to betray them was horrifying.

"Yeah, break outs and that sort of stuff. It's going to be a real messy work when I'm finished here."

Messy break outs… the only prison he knew would cause big trouble was Impel Down. If someone managed to break in and rescue prisoners, especially of the deepest level, there'd be unimaginable consequences of those kind of people running around loose. There were obviously suspicious people in Impel Down, Smoker had always been aware of the fact. Someone among who was formerly ranked there was untrustworthy and wielded enough power to assist in the breaking out. "Why are you telling me this?"

"It makes things interesting." The line went dead once more, leaving the silver-haired man to listen blankly to the long beep.

Like last time, Smoker didn't see a point in informing his officials. Though they would certainly tighten up security around Impel Down, it was unlawful to detain any of the people working in Impel Down due to strict laws of "innocent until proven guilty", which also did not allow anyone to be detained. They couldn't do a thing like that, and it would probably prompt the narc to notify his underground comrades to speed up the process of breaking in, and result in more casualties. It almost felt as if the caller wanted him to do that, since he was clearly surprised to learn that Smoker didn't mention a thing to Sengoku from the previous call.

His hand tightened around the old cell phone. He'll have to somehow outsmart and surprise this man.

* * *

Almost immediately after the three words left his mouth, Luffy was met with blinding pain. Crying out in surprise, his legs gave way and he toppled over, collapsing in between the desks. His hands clutched his head tightly, clawing at his hair and scalp in a vain effort to ease the ache, feet thrashing and kicking over surrounding desks, sending a flurry of papers to fly in disarray and other miscellaneous belongings crashing onto the floor. He barely heard frightened screams of the girls, too caught up in his internal turmoil.

The students backed quickly away from him in terror, a few continuing to scream and cuss loudly. Some naively thought their fellow student had caught the rabies as they were too blind to notice he lacked other symptoms. One even muttered Bible verses rapidly under his breath, one hand holding tightly onto his silver cross while the other made gestures to ward off the evil of demons that took over his classmate violently.

Shoving people roughly away, Usopp knelt next to Luffy. "Get a hold of yourself!" he said desperately. Luffy's breath was ragged, screams becoming more hysterical as his movements steadily got more and more erratic. "C'mon, Luffy, snap out of it!"

The rubber teen paid no heed to the voice, continuing to struggle against an invisible force. Images and memories fiercely bombarded his head, so foreign yet familiar all at the same time, but he couldn't handle them all, not when an entire lifetime's worth was dumped in. He simply couldn't handle of the speed as he tried to focus longer onto a particular one, only to have it slip through his mental fingers and cause more pain. "A-Ace…" he gasped out. "G-go away… go away…" They were slowing down now, yet they were the ones Luffy desperately didn't want to see. The ones where the other Ace had died.

Meanwhile, Usopp shot a sidelong glance at Sabo, finding him to be too suspicious. This man showed up and somehow managed to send the happy-go-lucky _Luffy_ into a heavy state of turmoil. It honestly scared him to hear his captain speak in an angst-ridden voice, then be reduced to a wailing mess, as if living in a waking nightmare. Who was he, and what ties did he have with Luffy before? He tensed. Was he… an enemy?

Glaring darkly at Sabo, he asked, "Who the hell are you?" For the sake of saving his captain from this state, he casted off his fear. He didn't care if this guy was dangerous and might be able to kill him; it was the last thing on his mind.

But what he didn't expect was for the older male to look so stricken and worried as he stared pale-faced at Luffy's possessed struggling. As quickly as the expression came though, it vanished without a trace, replaced by a determination. "Everyone, calm down!" he yelled out with such force the classroom immediately froze and quieted, staring at him blankly. "Single file line out the classroom, _now_!" There was no hesitation as the kids dispersed among the classroom, hastily picking up their belongings before charging out of the door, intimidated by force of the man's words.

Usopp stubbornly stayed by his captain's side, staring right back at Sabo resolutely. "I'm staying with Luffy. There's no way I'm going to let you be too near to him."

The blonde briefly winced, then sighed in exasperation. He turned his attention back to the thrashing teen. "Stop this, Luffy!"

His voice had miraculously put a sudden stop in Luffy's movements, making Usopp wonder if he had control over minds or knew the elusive power of haki. Both options caused him to shudder.

Continuing in a soft yet resolute voice Sabo said, "You're safe, Lu. You're okay. I'm here now." As if Luffy had comprehended his words, his hands slowly slipped away from its firm grip of his head and he stopped floundering about, cries completely ceased. His breathing remained irregular, sweat beading his forehead from the excursion.

The tone the new teacher had used reminded him much the same tone Luffy's brother had used many years ago when he first met Luffy in elementary school. The rubber teen was introduced as a new student in Usopp's school, coming from a relatively bad neighborhood called Corvo. At first he was cheerful and enigmatic, and by the end of the day he had already bonded with nearly all of his new classmates. Later when Ace came to pick the younger up though, Usopp had witnessed a strange scene from the area behind the stairs he was precariously hiding, and the event nearly caused him to tumble down his hiding spot.

In contrast with his previous sunny personality, the kid was sobbing into his older brother's shirt, holding on tightly like Ace was going to disappear. Ace patted him gently on the back and had said, "You're safe, Lu. You're okay. I'm here now." A few moments later Luffy stopped crying, but that particular memory was embedded deeply in Usopp's mind, as it was the first and only time he had seen his captain dissolve into tears.

Now it disturbed him greatly to see that it was almost as if the same scene was replayed but with Sabo replacing Ace's role, and he couldn't help but wonder if there was some sort of a hidden connection between the two. Usopp wasn't the brightest in his crew, no, that spot was left for Robin, but he was fairly intelligent in his own right and he had a feeling that there was definitely something that happened between Sabo and Luffy.

"Sabo… onii…chan?" Luffy's eyes fluttered open

There and then, the long-nosed sniper's most ludicrous theory was proved. In some crazy way, Sabo and Luffy were brothers. Usopp was now beating himself over the fact that it should've been the most obvious answer of all, considering just how screwed up Luffy's family was from what little the Straw Hats knew about their captain's past.

Sabo's voice had softened even more. "Yeah, I'm here."

Luffy let out a relieved sigh, his eyelids sliding shut again as he passed into a peaceful sleep.

Usopp blinked. "Oi… did he just call you… oniichan?"

Sabo sighed again. "I will explain that later. Go and call the nurse office right now."

* * *

Luffy woke up and yawned hugely, feeling as if he just had the best sleep of his life. Then he noticed he wasn't in his room, but the walls were a mint green and the bed was harder, the sheets much thinner and in a pale white shade. He must've ended up in the nurse office again because of a fight… but wait, he wasn't feeling pain anywhere instead of the state he'd usually end up when he went to this room which confused him greatly. "Huh," he mumbled out loud, absent-mindedly scratching the back of his head.

"Are you feeling better now?" the gentle school nurse poked her head curiously through the doorway.

Luffy perked up. He really liked that nurse; she was always so nice and tender to him when Ace would smack him in the head and other teachers would give him detention. Meanies… "Mhmm!" he said cheerfully, grinning ear to ear.

The nurse smiled back as she flicked away a strand of short brown hair. "Glad to hear that! Oh, and you have a few visitors!"

He tilted his head to the side, wondering who it might be. The question was answered within moments when two people stepped in cautiously into the room.

Then the memories came rushing in back to him, recalling what had happened in the morning. His long-thought-to-be-dead brother showed up as his new teacher, then memories of his other self had assaulted him so fast it made him pass out. But all the anger he had felt previously in discovering that Sabo was alive had dissipated, leaving a huge sense of relief and curiosity. There wasn't a point to hold a grudge, anyways, not when his brother was back! "Sabo!" he exclaimed cheerfully, swinging his legs down onto the floor and standing up abruptly, but was met with a head rush. "Whoa!" He stumbled a few steps, almost falling on his face when Sabo swooped in and caught him between the arms.

"Careful there," his brother warned, pulling him back into a standing position.

"Shishishi, I'll be fine." Luffy was grinning his usual unnaturally wide smile, and he plopped back down on the bed, realizing it'll be too much of an effort for him to stand properly.

Usopp trailed behind, watching the close interaction between the two warily, still not trusting the older man despite the conversation they held prior to Luffy's awakening. He'll only accept what Sabo said until it was confirmed by his captain in a relatively sound mind, because for all he knew Sabo might've been tricking him, and the "oniichan" was only a slip of words on a delirious Luffy's part.

"Ne, Sabo." Luffy swung his dangling legs back and forth, a habit of his. "How come you're alive? Ace and I both… saw… well… yeah…" he trailed off, unable to finish the sentence properly.

Sabo smiled back wryly, slightly taken aback by his cheery attitude. "Weren't you super angry at me awhile before?"

Luffy nodded energetically. "Mhmm! But not anymore, I don't like being angry."

The blonde chuckled softly to himself. "As expected of you, Luffy. Well then I ask you, are you happy that I'm alive?"

"Of course!" Luffy replied, smile stretching impossibly wider, " 'Cause now I have both of my brothers back. It's not the same without you, because Ace is still so mean to me sometimes."

"You wouldn't want him to hear that." Sabo snorted, knowing all too well what his younger brother meant. He couldn't help but feel slightly touched by how Luffy felt about him, as he had expected the teen to move on from his 'death' a long time ago.

"Yeah I know. He's probably going to punch me for it, like always." The rubber teen shuddered, hugging his straw hat close to him. "Sometimes I think his punches are even worse than Gramps's Fist of Love! So scary, I tell you. Ace is really becoming more and more like the old man, now I think of it, always worrying over me and yelling at me when I say some stuff." He recalled a particular time where he accidentally burned down a room in the science building because he smashed a few chemicals together and it created a bomb. The teacher was merciless in sending him to the principal's office, and Ace was also called in. When the two got home, Ace had proceeded to berate him despite the principal already giving him a long speech, and also punched him for it.

"Wait." Usopp broke the two's conversation. "Luffy, this guy is really your brother? Seriously?" He looked incredulous, jabbing a thumb at Sabo.

Luffy nodded, temporarily resembling a bobble head. "Yeah. I met him when I first met Ace."

"Oh." The sharpshooter slunk back into his little corner and motioned the two to continue. "Don't mind me, just go on."

"Also, Luffy, what happened to you? You were suddenly screaming like a banshee. It didn't have anything to do with me, did it?" Sabo, though not showing it outright, was in fact extremely worried when he watched his brother collapse despite looking perfectly fine just a second ago. For a wild moment, he was convinced that it had something to do with him, perhaps triggering the traumatic memory of his brothers finding out about his deaths, and seeing his face had forced the unpleasant recollection to resurface and cause emotional damage once more.

"I think it was the memories of my other self again," Luffy said with a small shrug, indicating that he didn't exactly understand either.

Although Sabo was momentarily relieved that it had nothing to do with what he thought, he became puzzled. "Your other self?"

"Yeah, my pirate self. You know, the other world?" Luffy said it with a matter-of-fact tone, as if that would address the older's confusion.

"Aha!" Sabo snapped his fingers. "You mean where Portgas comes from, right?"

While Luffy nodded in confirmation, Usopp narrowed his eyes. "Wait. How would you know that?" he asked sharply, glaring at the blond man distrustfully once again.

The words made Sabo pale comically. "Ah… well… that is…" he stammered, twiddling his thumbs nervously. "You know, people hear things here and there… since… well… intel travels fast?"

"That's not a good enough answer," the long-nosed sniper countered triumphantly, knowing he had made Sabo slip up just now. "That's very obvious, but very few people know about it!"

"Ummm… I was… err… watching them constantly whenever I had the time," Sabo mumbled the last few words almost inaudibly, but it was still loud enough for Usopp's sharp ears to hear.

Yet instead of exultantly cheering in his ability to make the other slip up and prove that he was a suspicious character, Usopp came to a startling obvious conclusion and slapped his palm against his forehead. "Of course!" he exclaimed loudly, rolling his eyes towards the heavens. "You've got an incurable case of brother complex just like Ace does. Why else would you spy on your brothers like a creepy stalker?"

Sabo coughed abashedly. "I don't believe brother complex is a very good term, it's more like a worried brother."

"Uh huh." Usopp crossed his arms and snorted. "The same way Ace is worried whenever he checks up on Luffy every half an hour when he's out of the house."

"What are you talking about?" Luffy tilted his head, puzzled by the funny interaction between his brother and gang member.

"Nothing!" both of them shot back simultaneously, knowing it was futile to attempt to explain anything to the simple-minded Luffy.

The rubber teen shrugged nonchalantly. "Okay," he said, and held up his Android phone, wagging it in the air to showcase it for all to see. "Sabo, I hope you do realize you'll have to tell Ace that you're alive right? I'm not gonna do it. It's too dangerous for me." He grinned wickedly.

The blond man turned into the color of pale sheets. Sometimes his brother seemed so oblivious and innocent, but at times he could just be downright evil. And now, unfortunately, was one of the times. Gulping in terror at the idea of what sort of responses he'd get, he reached slowly out for the phone with a sweaty hand. _Oh man_, he though inwardly, _I hope Ace isn't going to skin me alive or something._

Luffy's smirk grew.

* * *

"It must be Blackbeard!" Luffy banged his fist against the dilapidated wooden table firmly, only to withdraw nervously when he noticed one leg seemed to be failing. "I was fighting him, and he did this weird thing with Whitebeard's devil fruit combined with his own. It opened this super weird swirling hole, and before I knew it I was sucked into the thing while hearing my nakama scream out." His face darkened as he explained. "I wonder how they're putting up right now."

"Dammit, Teach!" Portgas growled, aiming a kick at the same table before pulling back at the last second, seeing that the leg really looked like it was going to collapse. "It's always him, screwing up everything everywhere."

Ace eyed the table nervously and thought it'd be a good idea to pull it slightly farther away from the two pirates before they lost control and destroyed it. "Well now you know what's going on, Luffy," he said, diverting the topic. "We currently really can't do anything right now because we don't know what Blackbeard is planning. But thanks to what Portgas knows, we managed to stop me from getting captured and executed." He shuddered in horror, shoving the memories of Impel Down and Marineford back down and mentally locked it tightly.

Luffy sighed wearily, so unlike his usual cheery self and said despondently, "If only I was as lucky as the me here…" he muttered sullenly, tilting his straw hat down.

An awkward silence passed, neither knowing how to continue that thought.

"Hey Luffy…" Portgas began hesitantly. "What happened after I-" he winced, "died?"

Luffy's face was unreadable. "I wanted to quit being the Pirate King, because I couldn't stand it. I thought I was too weak to protect anyone anymore."

Portgas coughed uncomfortably and motioned for him to continue.

"Then I trained with Rayleigh for two years under a harsh climate and mastered all the haki. I set off with my nakama again from Sabaody all the way to the New World, hoping to take down all the Yonko together with an alliance we made with the other super rookies in my time. By then the Marines were an even bigger enemy because Akainu became the Fleet Admiral after Gramps and Sengoku quit, and he had to fight it out with Aokiji, who also ended up quitting when he lost. You know, one of the island we went to, Punk Hazard, was permanently split into super hot and super cold because of their battle." His voice lightened. "It was reaaaally cool there, 'cause I gotta meet Trafal-guy again and Smokey, and this weird samurai dude."

However, neither Aces were paying attention to the later part, only focused on "trained with Rayleigh". "You trained with who?!" they shouted out together, standing up abruptly.

"Rayleigh," Luffy repeated, "You know, the Dark King? He was our coating mechanic we met during-"

"How did you- You know what, I'm not even going to ask," Portgas and Ace said in synchronization, cutting the younger off before he could continue.

Luffy raised an eyebrow at their strange act of harmonization. "Can you do that more often? Shishishi, it's pretty cool," he commented.

"Do what?"

Giving the straw hat teen a strange look, they sat back down in the rickety chairs.

"Luffy… you get in the weirdest situations," Portgas said at last with a sigh, running a hand through his tousled hair. "And now this, in the big mess with me."

"Ah well." Luffy shrugged. "Doesn't matter. It sounds pretty fun."

Ace shot a contemplative glance at the younger then leaned over to his counterpart, whispering, "Is it just me or is this Luffy more calm and mature?"

"You think so, too?" Portgas muttered back. "He's still an idiot, but he seemed to have changed…"

"What are you talking about?"

Frantically waving, the two shook their heads vigorously and responded, "Nothing! Nothing at all!"

"Okay then."

Ace's phone rang, vibrating obnoxiously in his pocket. He made a mental note to turn off the vibration later, but the thought was completely forgotten when a foreign tune began playing, which he was sure as heck he didn't set. "_I'm too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt, so sexy it hurts_." He turned a dark shade of red, pretty sure he'd never in hell put _this _song as his ringtone, especially with his tendency to walk around without a shirt when there weren't any prying eyes that would see his back tattoo. Must be Luffy then, that'd explain why he was grinning like a maniac in the morning.

Ignoring the barely suppressed chuckles coming from the pirate duo, he tapped the green button and pressed the phone to his ear. "Hello?" he said, not bothering to see the number.

"Umm… hi…" the voice was slightly familiar but he was unable to identify it. The person was clearly nervous from his breathy tone.

"Who is this?" he politely inquired, wondering it was some failed prank call of a student who somehow managed to get his hands on a random phone number.

"It's…" the mystery person took in a deep breath. "It's me. Sabo. I'm back."

The phone slid out of Ace's hand and landed on the floor with a dull thunk.

"Ace?" the alarmed voices of his other self and other Luffy snapped out of his trance.

He bent down and picked the phone up, gripping it a little tighter than he should. "You have exactly 30 seconds to explain this before I get over to Luffy's school and fucking kill you for real," he promised darkly, border lining a growl.

In a rapid breath, Sabo said, "Long story cut short I was never killed, and someone healed me back to health but I knew I couldn't go back immediately because it would raise too many questions knowing I'm supposed to be dead, and I'd never get out of my parents' hold like that so I had to bid my time."

Ace hung up without waiting for any further explanation. "Well guys," he said cheerfully as he twirled the phone around his fingers, "looks like we need to stop by Luffy's school for some very urgent business."

* * *

**(Note: There is a slight drift from canon as Shiliew was never imprisoned and retains his position of Chief Guard of Impel Down.)  
(Note 2: Onii-chan means big brother. I used Japanese because frankly, it's incredibly awkward to say "big brother Sabo" in my opinion.)**

**This doesn't really count as a cliffhanger, right? No? *gets shot* Looks like I broke my promise then… Sorry, Anjelle! Didn't mean to! Blame the muse! Well then, there should be a lot of stuff to be cleared up (hopefully) in the next chapter. Meanwhile, Blackbeard is up to something devious while our main cast is too busy solving their own problems. What will happen next? :D As some of you noticed I am not following our own world's laws and made up my own, since obviously people **_**can **_**be detained without fully proven to be guilty. **

**By the way, I'd like to thank you all for always reading and reviewing this story. I had never expected people to actually choose to read this, since the idea was so out there, but since I first begun I have gotten so many favorites, follows, and reviews. You have my very deep gratitude! *bows* **

**You know the drill, people, leave a little comment by clicking that review button on your phone or type a little something in the box. They make me happy and want to write faster. **

**~Shen**


	16. Sabo's Story

**Disclaimer: No own One Piece.**

* * *

Portgas watched his counterpart anxiously, still perplexed by the man's huge change of attitude. The other had drastically jumped from acting the usual calm demeanor to an angry and hurt one, all caused by a strange phone call, and he point-blank refused to enlighten the two pirates, claiming cryptically that they will see when they reached the younger Luffy's school, they'd know.

This put Portgas in heavy unease, as he knew that he himself wouldn't act in such a manner unless something heavily disturbed him, and the attitude was oddly reminiscent of the time when found out about Thatch's murder. These days he had found out that he could subconsciously sense Ace's emotions, especially if they were strong ones like wrath. What he was receiving was loud and clear, as if Ace was screaming out in his mind, which disturbed him. The feelings were a mix of inner turmoil, angst, and fury, none that Portgas could decipher properly. To make matters even worse, he could swear the other's eyes were glistening as he declared they were to go to Luffy's school, but when he looked back more closely it was gone.

He nodded absent-mindedly as his Luffy jabbered on incessantly by his ear about the daily shenanigans of his current crew, keeping a wary eye on Ace. His other self was emanating a cold rage that sent chills to Portgas's spine, and darkly muttering words he couldn't make out. He fervently prayed to whatever deities that existed that the man would not crash the car and drive past another red light before they reached their destination.

"So then, Zoro lifted up the entire barrel and drank it all! Nami got all mad and stuff, you know her, and started attacking him. It was so funny! Then I splashed them both with sake and they started attacking me. And then Sanji also joined in and started yelling at us because of the waste of food, while Usopp was screaming the kitchen was on fire and Franky did his super uber awesome pose and Brook was playing a really funny tune that made me want to dance but I was too busy fighting and-"

Portgas sighed tiredly and pressed his palm roughly onto the younger's mouth, effectively shutting him up before he received a migraine. "Luffy, can you tone down a little?"

The rubber teen unhappily mumbled something around his hand, and Portgas deemed it safe to remove it.

The car was thankfully quiet for a moment, the perfect environment for the former pirate to get lost in his thoughts once more. However, it wasn't very long when Luffy broke the tranquility and said, "Ne, am I going to meet myself?"

Seeing as Ace was still boiling in the front seat, Portgas answered for him. "Yep."

"Cool!" Luffy said happily, content with the answer. "Wait. Does he poop?"

Portgas's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "He was you two years ago. Did you poo?"

"Oh yeah, good point," said the younger. "… I can't remember if I pooped or not."

"Luffy…" A vein pulsed. "I am… not going to talk to you now."

"Eh?!" the younger cried out in dismay. "Why? What did I do?"

At the sight of Luffy's cute pout, Ace's heart melted again. "Just- just be quiet, okay? Until we get there."

"Awwwww… fine!"

And thus the rest of the car ride was mercifully free of Luffy's ramblings, leaving the two Aces to their own private thoughts.

Portgas was still overall very perplexed over Ace's attitude, which despite listening to Luffy's humorous stories did not lighten up in the least. In fact, the closer they drew towards the other Luffy's school, the worse the mood. But the initial feelings had gradually shifted into something deeper and more painful that he couldn't put into words at first. But the longer Portgas touched upon it, the more he realized what it stood for until he finally came up with the word. That bitter feeling was betrayal.

The epiphany unnerved the former pirate. What happened over that _one phone call _to trigger that emotion? He hadn't felt something so strong since Thatch died.

Finally they pulled over in front the Victorian styled building by the gates, Ace smoothly swerving into the proper parking space. Wordlessly he stepped out and slammed the door harder than necessary, Portgas and Luffy following right behind, noticing his deadly attitude.

He stalked up to the guard house like outpost and said, "I'm picking up my brother early because he's got sent into the nurse's office."

The man behind the screen scrutinized Ace's appearance and decided there was nothing outwardly fishy. "What's his name?"

"Monkey D. Luffy," he replied, tapping his fingers impatiently against the ledge.

There was a brief pause as the man keyed in the name. "And your name, sir?"

"Portgas D. Ace."

The man surveyed him once more, eyes darting between him and the screen, comparing the two images together to see if they matched. Of course, Ace thought morbidly, the disguise was easy to form as long as you created a proper face mask and wig since there was only the head to use as a reference. "I believe you have to answer the security question as well," the man said, twirling his mustache. "The question is, 'what was my mother's name'?"

"Ruby," he replied without hesitation. Obviously he didn't put his mother's real name, as he was too paranoid about his privacy being in an environment where all information, once slipped out the mouth, was up for grabs and could be used in all kinds of dangerous ways. Besides, Ruby was a play on Rouge as it was a red gem, and a twist of the Latin form of Rouge, Ruber. In this way he wouldn't accidentally forget.

"And who are those two?" The guard gestured cautiously towards the two lurking pirates as they stood a little ways behind.

"Ah… well one of them is my twin brother, and the other is a cousin of ours who just recently arrived at the district to visit," Ace lied smoothly. Luffy's profile should be updated with "Trace"'s information as well.

The other furrowed his eyebrows. "Ummm… your twin… Mr. Portgas D. Trace, am I correct?"

"Yup!"

The guard keyed in a few quick strokes, and the sound of beeping was heard. Two small squares and a laminated piece of paper slid smoothly out of a specialized machine, and he shoved the three pieces through the slit by the window. "Here you go, two guardian identification cards for you and Mr. Portgas, as well as a visitor's pass for the other sir over there."

Ace nodded his thanks and scooped the cards up, tossing them towards the waiting two. "Let's go," he said, beckoning them over to the gate, where he swiftly swiped his card across and the gate rumbled, sliding slowly open for entrance. He strode forward.

The trio passed many occupied classrooms in awkward silence. Portgas twirled his identification card idly, still retaining an eye on his other self for any other strange behavior. Other than looking more determined than before there weren't any other changes, that is, until he spotted Ace's unnaturally tight hold on his hard, knuckles turning nearly white as the card looked close to snapping in half.

With a grimace, they carried on to the nurse's room, stopping in front of the shiny white plague that stated her name. Ace twisted the polished golden knob and entered.

In that moment, several people shouted out names simultaneously in shock. And thus began the rapid fire of yelling as each spoke at the same time, fueled by a sudden release of emotion.

Poor Usopp, caught in the middle of all the confusion finally pulled out a small tin whistle he kept handy in his pocket and placed his lips upon it, blowing as hard as he could.

Pandemonium ceased, swapped with a deadly calm as they all swiveled their gazes to the long-nosed sharpshooter, who gulped uneasily as he met their eyes. "I want all of you to stop. I don't care what is going on, but nothing makes sense to me _at all_. Who the hell are you, Sabo? And why is there another Luffy here? That Luffy doesn't even look like this Luffy!" He tried his best to keep the usual quavering tone off his voice whenever he commanded people, and glued on what he hoped was an impassive face.

Then they all began talking at once, gesturing to each other and fighting over each other's voices.

"He's supposed to be dead, dammit! I thought-"

"Why the hell is Sabo-"

"What's the pirate Luffy doing here-"

"ENOUGH!"

Their voices died away.

"Speak, one by one!" This time, Usopp wasn't trembling in fright anymore, his patience pushed to the limit by the others' childish behavior. "You're not children!"

"Alright," Ace said, his eyes flashing angrily as he slammed his fist against the bed in a dull thud. "This bastard-" he pointed to Sabo, "is supposed to be dead. I fucking _saw _it happen, and I can tell you it wasn't good to Luffy or my mental health. Now he's got guts to waltz back in our lives like nothing happened."

Usopp nodded thoughtfully, carefully archiving the information for later uses. "Next."

"I thought Sabo was supposed to be dead, as well. Isn't this a parallel universe?" Portgas said, mystified. "But if this is a parallel universe, doesn't that also mean that Sabo's alive in our universe?! If that's true, why didn't the bastard contact us all these years?! And he made Luffy suffer all the pain for these two years." He clutched onto the younger protectively, arms wrapped tightly around his torso.

Sabo shrunk smaller and smaller against the wall, unable to withstand all the hate directed at him. But curiosity took the better of him. "Wait, how come Luffy's here as well?" he asked, peering inquisitively the Straw Hat pirate.

"I don't know," Luffy replied. "I was fighting Blackbeard, then I don't remember anything." He shrugged nonchalantly, his standard response to most questions directed to him.

"One mystery solved!" Usopp declared, pounding his fist against his palm. "Now, Mr. Sabo, I believe an explanation is due to order for all of us. We all would love to hear how you apparently returned from the land of the dead. Please do not tell me you're actually a zombie, because I had quite enough of them back in Thriller Bark."

"Well," Sabo cleared his throat and adjusted his collar nervously. "I'll first say that I want to apologize for well… pretending to be dead."

"Apology not accepted," Ace and Portgas said in unison.

Sabo flinched. "Thought so."

And it was then when Usopp decided to intervene before chaos broke out for the third time. He blew the whistle shrilly once more, causing all the other occupants of the room to clamp down on their ears lest they began to bleed. "Truce! Now! Seriously, you two hot-heads, if you both don't cool down and start ranting all over again none of us will get anywhere and we'll be stuck in the nurse's office for an ungodly amount of time. So. Shut up!"

Taken aback by Usopp's surprising burst of courage, the two back down and crossed their arms as they leaned against the wall, once more uncannily copying each other's movements.

The blonde mouthed a word of thanks to Usopp. "It's all in here," he said, tossing a small leather notebook to the long-nosed teen.

Upon catching the journal, he noted it looked worse for wear, battered and worn as if the older had carried it around for several years. Flipping through the pages, he saw that they were all filled thickly with very neat handwriting, and there were still blank pages at the back where a golden bookmark was stuck. Examining the yellowed pages, he realized it was the prologue of a story, the characters and descriptions sounding very familiar to him.

Wait. It wasn't a story. He looked up at Sabo, and back down.

This was Sabo's story.

…

_It would be better to die than be stuck between life and death, life swaying uncertainly in between. The excruciating pain was so powerful that Sabo welcomed his darkening sight with welcoming arms, knowing it would begin to ebb away to nothing once his eyelids slid shut, and he'd never be bothered by the cruelty of life. _

_The bloodcurdling screams, intense heat of fire, and other noises were distant to his ears, far away. The tiny shard of conscience shrieked incessantly in his mind, urging him to get back up even though he long accepted it was impossible. His battered body had taken all the damage it could, and his life blood was slowly and uncontrollably bleeding out onto the dirty cement. There was no point trying to get back. He thought longingly back to his brothers, whom he knew would miss him dearly, especially the crybaby Luffy. But he was sure they'll get back on their feet stronger than ever._

_With a small smile on his face, he gave in to the darkness and knew no more. Whether there was holy judgment or simple nothingness after death, he didn't care. If he was to be judged, so be it. _

_However, what he did not notice in his dying moments was a frantic yell._

…

_All he knew was his name, Sabo. Last name? He didn't know. He didn't care. Thinking about it gave him a deep bitter resentment, until in the end he decided his name will simply be Sabo. He didn't need another. _

_He picked absentmindedly at the clean white bed sheets, the loose bandages dangling in front of his eye. They told him that he was safe now, in the orphanage of a remote district in Eats Blue. They found him in the Gray Terminal, where all the lowest of the low in Goa meandered and fought. And stranger than that, they found him heavily injured on the brink of death, and he had been out for a week due to the severity. Broken bones, blood loss, concussion. And they said it was pure luck and determination he pulled through, that he must've had a strong reason to keep living to do such a feat at a young age._

_When the people questioned him about where he came from, he replied that he didn't know. His mind was blank._

_The doctor came again and diagnosed him with amnesia. "I cannot tell if it will be permanent or not," he admitted as he packed up his supplies. "However, all kinds of things can trigger different memories. So don't give up yet."_

_Sabo fingered the sheets thoughtfully. But months after his diagnosis, nothing had happened. He remained clueless of his own past and identity, until the orphanage finally took him in and proclaimed him an orphan. _

…

_No one ever chose to adopt him, nor was he eager to be adopted. Over the years, he often heard whispers of other people, calling him strange, unlikable, and numerous other insults. He didn't play in such a carefree manner like other children, nor did he choose to at all. He had a monstrous strength and fighting ability that aided him often in saving the other children of the orphanage whenever they were bullied or wandered astray, and that lead him to be called the child of the Devil. _

_Aside from the uncanny skill in fighting and other undesirable law-breaking activities, he was often seen buried in books and studying material far behind his age. Calculus, advanced physics, foreign politics, and more, all scavenged from places no one dared to ask. His past was a mysterious one; no one knew where he came from save the few people who found him in the Gray Terminal. He mentioned once in passing that his memory gradually returned, but refused to open up to anyone except the doctor that acted almost as his therapist. _

_By sixteen, he had began delving into the underground and the mafia, uncovering and gathering more intel than any other would think of a sixteen-year-old, but all that he did was well-covered and unheard of from the orphanage caretakers. For all they were concerned he spent all day studying and training, and nothing else but. No one questioned his disappearances at night, much less even notice every night when he slipped out the window and out onto the streets, garbed in black and blue and armed with a tall staff. _

_By eighteen he officially moved out of the orphanage for good, but not without donating a hefty sum to make up for all the years he was in their stay and more. From then, he vanished without a trace to the knowledge of the caretakers, erasing all records of his mere existence. The mysterious boy called Sabo was only preserved in memory and nothing else._

…

_Rigorous tests qualified him to be several different jobs, and he was heralded as a genius to hold so many degrees at a young age. In the flipside of law, he was a dangerous criminal known to few, as he kept his identity so well hidden. It was in the fifth month when he first moved out that he was finally tracked down by the most unlikely group._

_The Revolutionaries arrived out of the blue at his doorstep, and Sabo was caught off guard as he greeted them, a cautionary hand hovering around his faithful staff, compressed together and strapped to his belt. Even more intimidating than the mysteriously cloaked group, the leader of them all was also present. _

_Sabo was startled to see Dragon standing in front of him, combined with the fact that he had _met _the man before he escaped his dratted family. And somehow, Dragon managed to connect the dots between the younger him and his underground identity. _

_His proposition was simple: join the Revolutionaries. They gave him three days to consider, and during those three days Sabo thought nothing but the offer, repeatedly weighing the pros and cons of joining. _

_In the end, he accepted. Sabo was assigned as the head of a sector of the intelligence team, which operated not unlike Cipher Pol 9 of the World Government but their execution of missions was much more humane than the likes of Lucci and his heartless band. This suited him well, as his forte was stealth and intel, not battling or strategizing and playing with politics. _

_And throughout the next two years he sped quickly through ranks and steadily gained the respect of his peers by successfully completing many operations thought to be near-impossible with his team of elites. And during the two years, he borrowed the resources of the Revolutionary Army and successfully tracked down his estranged brothers. He was glad to see them alive and well, and Luffy remained unchanged with the usual cheery deposition Sabo always feared his younger brother would lose. To his surprise, Ace had changed greatly over the years and lost his surly and dark side, replaced by a happy and fun demeanor he never imagined Ace would ever become. _

…

Usopp passed the journal back.

"So this entire time you were watching me and Lu, but you never saw it fit to talk to us once?!" Ace said furiously, hands clenched into fists. "Really?!"

"It was never the right time," Sabo said. "I was under orders not to, because it would mess up the mission I'm in."

Ace snorted and rolled his eyes. "So you chose work over family."

"I don't think that's right either," Portgas added with a frown as the two Luffys watched them with wide eyes.

"It's not that simple," the blonde shot back with a hint of exasperation. "We've been tracking Blackbeard and all his movements these past two months because Dragon knew something was up with him after killing the fourth commander all for a devil fruit. Since then my team was dispatched to research about the Yami Yami no Mi and his current movements. I was told specifically not to reveal myself to you guys in case I screwed up the mission. But you guys are too deep in this mess now, so it doesn't matter either way. It's been hard on my part as well! Losing my memory and getting it back wasn't easy, and finding you guys weren't either. It was like you vanished off the face of the earth completely, since you aren't even registered citizens with proper birth certificates, absolutely no medical records or any sort of thing like that, no residence, nothing on Garp's profile. Absolutely nothing. Obviously it didn't help that you moved away to a new place, as well." Sabo's voice steadily rose louder, all the pent up frustration spilling out.

"Stop it you two!" the younger Luffy shouted out all of a sudden, having being silent the entire time. They only noticed now that he was quivering with anger. "Just get over it, both of you. I'm glad Sabo's back and that's all I care!"

Then Ace strode forward and enveloped Sabo in a huge hug. "I missed you. Glad to have you back," he muttered, pink spots appearing on his cheeks.

Sabo patted his back awkwardly and smiled. "Me too."

"Wait," the older Luffy said slowly. "Doesn't that mean… our Sabo is alive?"

"That's what I'd think, as well," Portgas said. "Alternate universes…"

"It's very likely," Sabo replied. "The other me was probably in a similar situation. And err… other Luffy… you look different. What happened there?"

"Because I'm from two years later, apparently," Luffy said with a laugh. "Which means I'm older than other me!" He was oblivious to the many strange looks he received.

"That is soooo cool and awesome!" the younger Luffy chirped. "So you're like my big brother who's me!"

"That's epic!" older Luffy said, grinning.

"No, that isn't!" Usopp cut across, waving his arms frantically. "This doesn't make sense, because whenever I say 'Luffy' both of you are going to respond, and I can't say Luffy did this but Luffy tried to stop him!"

"So?" the two tilted their heads.

"I vote the younger to be called idiot and the older as retard," Portgas supplied unhelpfully, glaring at them. "Both are such trouble makers."

"I second the decision," Ace chimed in.

"Hmm… How about Lu and Luffy?" Sabo suggested. "The younger can be Lu. A cuter nickname for him."

"Decided!" Usopp said, banging a hammer he found like a court gavel while ignoring the protests of the Aces. "The court hereby declares one as Lu and the other as Luffy."

"Oh yeah, Sabo. You mentioned you're studying Blackbeard and all that stuff about his stupid Devil Fruit. Do you know why I got here, then? And Luffy, as well," Portgas said, becoming serious once more. "I'd like some answers once and for all, and as much as I like it here I still need to return home."

"Actually, save that thought for later." Sabo reached inside a pant pocket and pulled out a buzzing Android phone. "Yes?"

"We've got a big problem!" said a voice on the other side, sounding hysterical. "Plan B Phase Two begun ahead of notice! And we've picked up a third party influence."

"What's that?!" the blonde replied sharply. "And you guys didn't pick up _anything_ at all from them?"

"I'm sorry!" the other cried. "It was all so sudden!"

"Send your coordinates over. I'll be right there, and I'm going to bring some friends." He hung up, then turned to address the other people in the nurse's office. "What do you think about possibly entering a battle?"

* * *

Smoker gnashed his teeth in frustration, and spat out two crushed cigars onto the ground, stamping them out. "Fuck this!" he growled angrily, sending the phone hurtling into the opposite wall and watched it shatter upon impact into several chunks. Before his men had the time to fully plan out how to prevent the mysterious call, it was too late.

Furious over his own helplessness, he proceeded to scatter all the damn paper work, cursing them darkly and he tore up a good number. He wasted so much time over idiotic work that wasn't nearly as important as the momentum event that just took place, which he might've been able to stop had it not being all the additional work loaded on him out of the blue.

Storming out of his office, he called out, "We're heading to Impel Down, now!"

* * *

**Think you guys can guess what just happened, huh? And hope you all enjoyed the story behind Sabo! No one minded the attention on him, right? I wish. Anyways, I managed to update this two days before my usual time. No time for rambling on about random things now! Happy Chinese New Year to all! And like always, please leave a review, it makes me update faster as seen with this time. **

**~Shen**

**P.S. Go check out Anjelle's stories, and Kitsune Foxfire's as well. They've got some excellent ones! Also, read Could Have Been by Delta Wish, which is a really awesome story involving another Luffy getting sent into an alternate world where that Luffy is a Marine. Gah, my English is beginning to suffer now.**


	17. Third Party

**Disclaimer: You'd think after 17 chapters people would know I don't own One Piece.**

* * *

As the ragtag group of six reached Sabo's large van, Ace let out an audible gasp. His eyes swept over the contents of his brother's car, astounded by the pure amount of complex technology stowed away inside neatly that transformed a seemingly ordinary vehicle into a high-quality surveillance van, and he couldn't help but be jealous by all the resources the blonde had at his fingertips. By the heavily tinted windows were wires, taped neatly on the walls and connected to various glowing machines scattered across the seats, beeping occasionally. On top of the pull-out tables were stacks of cases filled with an assortment of chips and cable connectors. Near the back, there was a funny pulley Ace immediately had to the foresight to shove the two Luffys away from lest they caused major trouble.

"Impressed?" Sabo's mouth quirked up into a smile by the other's blatant show of awe to the equipment he had. It wasn't often that Ace would show emotions like such, and it amused him to see the man's eyes sparkle much like a child in a large toy store.

Ace nodded numbly, mind too absorbed in taking in all the little details of the van that turned out to be much bigger than one would seem from the outside. "How is this possible?" he murmured, running a hand across the smooth surface of a wired laptop.

"Benefits of being a Revolutionary," Sabo replied with a smug grin.

"Oi, is this the newest edition?!" Usopp shouted in surprise, waving a tiny black chip in the air he picked up from one of the cases.

Sabo's grin widened. "Yep, it is. I got my hands on it for free because of our front company affiliation."

"You lucky bastard," Ace muttered as he eyed the computer chip enviously.

"Anyhow," the blonde said as he strapped on his seat belt, "you kids better buckle in."

"Kids?" the two Aces echoed. "Thought we were both the eldest!" They were blissfully ignorant to the strange looks they received from the simultaneous answer.

"Yes. Kids," Sabo replied as he started the ignition, an ominous roar echoing his movement. "My birthday is before you two."

"Since when?!"

And before anyone fully realized what was going on, Sabo sharply stabbed a button by the steering wheel, activating a high-pitched siren that flashed red. "Here we go! Hold on tight! Quite literally," he yelled cheerfully above the deafening blare and the suspicious noise of grinding gears that sent icy fear through Ace's veins. He swore something was activated in the van, and the ground itself was rumbling. Sabo looked oddly excited, his eyes lit up with mischief. And when something like that happened, Ace knew he was up to no good.

Then the ground underneath gave way, and they were sent directing plunging down into pure darkness as they were swallowed up, and all source of light from the sky was cut off when the trap sprang close again. All the while they were falling, the siren continued to blare, Usopp screamed hysterically, Luffy and Lu were both cheering like mad with their arms up, and Sabo had let out a cheerful yelp. Ace and Portgas were clenching tightly onto the hand rails by the seats, their uses finally revealed to their eyes.

Within seconds Sabo had slammed the accelerator, propelling the van forward with a burst of energy, bright blue flames trailing behind.

The most terrifying thing? They were still in mid-air.

Ace was pretty sure his heart was going to give out on him by the rate it was pumping, unwanted adrenaline increasing its activity.

Out of nowhere, the van hit the bottom and rocked the entire vehicle as if it had hit a stone wall, but there was a loud splashing noise along with pelting water droplets that told Ace they were in the waterways through some screwed up shortcut that nearly killed him from shock. It was only then when the pandemonium faded away, the siren ceasing at last along with the screams.

Ace slumped back onto the soft leather seat in relief as he attempted to steady his breathing. He's had too many surprises all bunched up in one day. First came the other Luffy, then the revelation of his long-lost brother coming back from the dead, and now the crazy car ride he just experienced.

Silence reigned for a short while, until-

"Ne, Portgas, do you poop?"

"Out of place here, Lu!" both the Aces screeched at the younger Luffy.

"Sabo, what the hell was that?" Ace exclaimed, disregarding his brother's previous bizarre remark. "Were you trying to kill us?" Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Lu's crewmate had passed out on his seat behind him, eyes rolling back.

"Hey, it's fun," the blonde retorted, sticking his tongue out childishly.

"Damnit, at least give us a forewarning will you?" Portgas said weakly from his corner as he rubbed his head, his other hand still clenched tightly onto the safety hold. Through the chaos he had somehow banged it on a jutting piece of metal.

"Heh, it's the surprise that makes it interesting." Sabo was now absentmindedly twiddling with a few more dials by the steering wheel, the swift movements indicating it wasn't the first time he had done it. "There we go!"

All hands flew back to the railings when they heard the sound of gears activating once more, but even moments after they stopped nothing had happened.

Sabo chuckled amusedly at their response. "Relax, guys, I only changed the shape of the van so it can travel more freely in the waterways." He laughed harder when there was a collective sigh of relief.

"So who was the one that designed the shortcut?" Luffy asked curiously, poking his head through the head rests. "He's such a genius."

"That'll be Dragon," he replied, his eyes focused on navigating the road.

"Dang," Luffy pouted. "I wish my dad in my world was as cool."

…

"Your dad?!" Sabo jerked the wheel abruptly to the side, causing the occupants to be smashed roughly onto the side of the transformed vehicle.

"You didn't know?" the rest deadpanned, and the eldest's face flushed a dark red.

"No, I actually didn't," he muttered.

It was then when Usopp chose to be roused from his fear-induced sleep. "Wha's happenin'?" he slurred, eyes unfocused and unaccustomed to the dim lighting of the underground.

"Go back to sleep!" they said, and interestingly enough the sharpshooter shifted in his position and began to snore soundly away.

"Seriously though," Portgas said, "how far away are we from Impel Down?" Frankly, he didn't want to be anywhere near the living hell of a prison from all the horrors he suffered from there. He shuddered at the unwanted memories of inmates beaten beyond recognition, reduced to a bloody mess of limps and haunted screams. Sometimes they burned to their deaths, disfigured by poison and acid that ate away at their body, stripping away skin and flesh until the white of their bones showed through. It was the voices that scared him the most, how earnestly they croaked and begged to be saved and pardoned on. The memories brought a bitter taste to his mouth.

"Ten minutes tops," said the blonde. "Though I'd wager you wish it'll take longer."

"Yeah," Portgas said quietly. At least he wasn't going to be in the cursed place this time, staying delightfully on the perimeter where none of the dead bodies and moaning would reach his senses and restart nightmares.

Ace shot a worried glance to his counterpart, wondering how the former pirate would take going to the prison once more. The worry grew as he saw the other's composed face, but inwardly he felt disturbance within him.

Luffy patted Portgas's back reassuringly. "I'm not going to let you die again."

Portgas smiled. "Yeah, I know."

A tense atmosphere settled in as they neared the Calm Belt where an overwhelming amount of Sea Kings lurked, but Sabo had assured them that there was a coating of seastone that would allow them to safely travel. The apprehension only grew when they finally emerged from the exit to the towering prison.

Sabo stopped the car to a skidding halt. "Fuck this!" he cursed. It was obvious a large battle had already taken place from the destruction of the area; any criminals that broke out had long escaped from the scene to unknown places. They were too late to apprehend the problem, and now who knew what kind of hellish criminals have been let loose.

But surprisingly, in the midst of all the mess there was an all-too-familiar officer shouting orders to his soldiers.

Ace's first instinct was to hide behind his seat; he had gotten into enough trouble with said officer all too often both underground and in real life. Then he remembered the windows were so heavily tinted it was virtually impossible to see inside, and he let out an audible sigh.

"So the Marines are the third party, huh?" Sabo muttered thoughtfully as they watched Commodore Smoker storm around as he yelled at his men. Then louder, he added, "Well I'm going in and talking to him. This isn't his sector yet he came here before all others, even me, and my intel has to be the fastest around."

"O-oi, but wouldn't he-?" Usopp had woken up by this time, face pale in dread. He didn't like the grumpy officer, not one bit. There were several close calls with the Straw Hats involving him and he had grown to fear the older man due to all the skirmishes.

"Covers," Sabo responded, pulling out an I.D. card from his pocket. "They're everything in this industry." And with that, he exited the van and headed to the currently fuming officer as the car's occupants watched agitatedly.

However, in truth Sabo did not know how to properly approach the commodore either, as the man was one of the few Marines that were decent with their jobs and wasn't easily won over with petty bribes. He had a rather serious and strict personality on top of his strong moral justice, making him a very hard person to try to get information out of. So Sabo went with what he did best, be friendly and nice. Walking over to the silver-haired man, he said, "Hello! You're Commodore Smoker, I believe?"

Smoker raised an eyebrow at the newcomer. "And who the hell are you?" He wasn't in a mood for pleasantries, not in a situation like this.

"My name is Xander Blue, an officer on patrol," Sabo lied smoothly, extending his forged I.D.

"And what do you want?" Smoker spat out his cigars on the ground, stamping them out with unnecessary force.

"I was wondering what happened here," the blonde said meekly, "I mean, it looks like a battle just took place. I do have to report any strange findings to my superior officer, after all." Playing the nice guy would assuage any growing suspicions. At least, he hoped.

"Well you can tell your officer to fuck it, because there was a goddamn break out that just took place here."

He took on a mask of undiluted shock and exclaimed, "Really?! Oh my god! How? Who broke out?"

"Pipe down, brat," Smoker grumbled, covering his ears in pain. "They had help from the outside, who I don't know. But I do know that the bastard Shiliew played a part in this as well."

Sabo had suspected as much. Shiliew was the type of person to get along with Blackbeard, and with their combined efforts it was easy to break a few people out of Impel Down no matter how hard the feat seemed to be. "This is scary," he continued his act in pretending to be panicking. "God, what kind of people was let out?"

The silver-haired man relit two fresh cigars. "Sanjuan Wolf, Vasco Shot, Catarina Devon, and Avalo Pizarro, the very kind of criminals who were supposed to be erased from history and be forgotten by letting them die in the prison." Unconsciously he was gritting his teeth, grinding the cancer sticks in his mouth.

"Oh god," he muttered out loud; the names had honestly shattered Sabo's inner calm. All four were dangerous people who committed unspeakable crimes along with Shiliew, and to have them join Blackbeard's crew was an appalling thought. They were a big force to be reckoned, and he'd have to report this immediately to Dragon as soon as he got back, and inform his brother ahead of time about this. With such a gang the traitor would want to begin counterstrike, and thorough plans could very well bring down Whitebeard if it went unmonitored. "And commodore, how do you know Shiliew was behind this?" There was just the right amount of hesitance in there to show uncertainty over accusing a senior officer.

Smoker stared long and hard at Sabo, eyes unreadable. Finally, he said, "Who are you, kid?"

"Huh?" Sabo reigned in his panic attack. "I'm just a patrolling officer from this sector, that's all."

"No you're not," Smoker stated firmly, "and I know that as well as the person in charge of the sector."

"I believe you're wrong, sir. I'm new."

"I know well enough that Hina won't recruit a flimsy guy like you."

Ahhh… Sabo had completely forgotten about rumors of the commodore's close relationship with Hina as there was barely any substance to it, but that rumor was just proven true to him. He should've known better and cursed bitterly at his blind sight. "Well then, you're right about that, Mr. Smoker," he said with a wry grin. "However, you cannot deny that you know a lot more than you're showing."

Smoker glared at him. "… Brat… honestly, who the hell are you?"

"A simple nobody, as I usually like to say," Sabo replied with a small grin.

The older ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "Obviously you came here knowing this had happened. I have the right to arrest you for the suspicions of going against the Government as an accomplice to the break-out."

Sabo then decided to do something drastic. "How about… we call a truce? My side has information you would like, and you seem to hold information that I do not have. And I am right to assume that you have alerted your superiors of this, have you?" He smirked inwardly when he saw a change in Smoker's expression, knowing he had hit the nerve. The silver-haired man didn't come across as one of the very moldable and obedient soldiers.

"Not until you tell me who you are," Smoker pressed on stubbornly.

"Take a guess."

"You aren't part of the mafia… you're one of the Revolutionaries, aren't you?"

"Bingo."

"I have every right to arrest you."

"But I know you won't."

"… You brat…"

"That's the third time you've called me that, Commodore." Taking a step back, he continued. "I will contact you soon." In a flash, he had thrown down a smoke bomb, triggering a large burst of dust clouds that spewed forth from the small metal container, forcing Smoker's eyes to stream in pain as he coughed. Through irritated eyes he could barely make out the black van zoom off with a loud revving of its engine, disappearing into the distance. Damn it, he should've taken a closer look at the license plate.

"Commodore!" his lieutenant hurried over from her spot, a lace handkerchief covering her nose and mouth. "Are you alright?"

The smoke was beginning to disperse, clearing the air. "I'm fine. Did you manage to see the license plate on that van?"

Tashigi blinked several times not because of the floating debris, but because she was utterly clueless. "Sorry sir, there was a van?"

Smoker groaned inwardly. He should've known he wasted his breath by asking that question. "We've got a little more on our hands than what we thought," he said.

The female swordsman only blinked another time.

* * *

Meanwhile with Sabo, they had reentered the underground waterways in a not so violent and sudden fashion as they did initially, a heavy relief to nearly all the occupants of the car except for the driver himself. Usopp had voiced his opinions quietly in his corner about it and was met with a derisive snort.

"You guys are no fun at all," the blonde had complained immaturely, proceeding to stomp on the accelerator. The makeshift boat-like vehicle shot forwards at an impossibly fast speed, turning around in sharp corners and sending the rest of the car screaming their lungs out as he barely missed smashing the car every time. Every turn was heart-attack inducing, and sometimes the scraping had caused an earsplitting whine that sent shivers up Ace's spine.

The freckled man was fervently thanking the holy deities when they finally came to a screeching halt at their destination and climbed hastily out on wobbly legs, collapsing on his knees on the pavement. "Never again, Sabo," he rasped through a very sore throat as his pale counterpart joined him on the ground, looking as if he was about to puke all over himself.

For the second time of the day, the long-nosed sharpshooter had passed out at the back of the back, making Ace almost envious of his ability to knock himself out so easily.

"You guys are seriously no fun," Sabo stated once more as he observed their pitiful state with amusement.

"S-shut up," Portgas gasped out, then covered his mouth as his body shook, trying to press back the nausea that threatened to overflow.

"I could've gone faster, actually," the eldest added unhelpfully with a wide grin.

"Can I just say fuck you?" Ace muttered. "See, even other me is ready to pass out. And the two idiot Lu's are already knocked out."

Sure enough, the two were snoring away in their sleep although the reason for the surprise nap was debatable. Sabo raised a doubtful eyebrow and said, "They look more tired than anything, since they found the ride pretty fun. It's just you two that are the party-poopers here. Lighten up, will you?"

Portgas snorted. "I thought you were supposed to be the mature, responsible nice big brother here. How the hell did you turn so childish?"

Ace nodded vigorously in agreement. "What he said."

Sabo rolled his eyes. "No fun. Now I thought you wanted to hear about what I said to our dear friend Commodore Smoker, but if you don't haul your ass over to my apartment we're going to get nowhere."

Remembering that tidbit, the freckled man jumped back onto his feet, only to have them collapse as he fell face forward onto the ground from a sudden torrent of dizziness. He glared balefully at his brother, who dissolved into giggles. "You two just look so pathetic right now," Sabo remarked with a snicker. "No, actually, Luffy's crew mate looks even worse."

Unbeknownst to him, Portgas had forced himself back on his feet and had a fist drawn back. The surprise attack caught the blonde squarely in the face, packed with enough strength to cause the older to lose his footing and fall inelegantly onto his behind. "They say payback's a bitch," the former pirate said with a mischievously dangerous glint in his eye as he cracked his knuckles threateningly. He stretched his muscles, stiff from being cramped up with fear on the horrifying car ride.

"Oh, so you want a fight now?" Sabo responded with a smirk. A hand casually rested on his hip, where his weapon of choice was covertly hidden away on his belt.

"Not in public, idiots!" Ace yelled exasperatedly, stepping in the middle. He waved his hands furiously in the air.

"Oh right…" Both withdrew from their battle stances.

"We still have work to do, after all," Sabo acknowledged as he drew out a rattling key ring, flipping through until he found the right one, a well-polished bronze key that fitted the exterior of his aristocrat-styled apartment. As he turned to the door, two blurs zoomed past him and snatched the ring out of his hands before he reacted. In the next half second, the intricately designed door swung open with a large gush of wind, and they heard two very thrilled squeals of delight. "I hope they aren't going to wreck my poor house."

"I wouldn't bet on that," Ace muttered grimly, hefting the heavy body of Usopp over his shoulders. "One troublemaker is enough as it is."

He stopped dead at the doorstep as he peered inside, not quiet believing the sheer size of the place. It was large for an apartment; perhaps condo or even a full-sized house would be more aptly named to this structure. The style clearly reflected his brother's fine tastes from being brought up as a refined noble, from the high arched ceilings to the winding staircase leading up, complete with a fancy banister and traditional lamps by the side. Replicas of famous art pieces covered the pale peach walls, and plush velvet chairs and sofas filled the first room, the thin flat-screen TV strangely out of place from the apparent 18 century look. Above head on the high ceiling was a beautiful golden chandelier, crystal shards forming into patterned bunches.

If this was just one room, Ace didn't feel like looking at others. He couldn't help but have a strong wave of envy wash over, along with a sense of disjointedness among the high-class furnishing. In comparison he was just a guy who dropped out of college with a sad high school diploma, choosing to work for the shady side of law. His apartment seemed so _miserable _in comparison, and as he looked out the corner of his eye he saw the strange mix of awe and jealousy in his counterpart.

"Oi Sabo, if this is an apartment why is so big?" Ace questioned. "A more appropriate term is 'house', don't you think?"

The elder chuckled. "Technically it is, but I bought the entire building and had it renovated."

"You bought the entire building," Portgas repeated, flabbergasted. Meanwhile, they heard gleeful laughs and the sound of gulping and fierce eating. It didn't take a whole lot of brains to know what the two Luffys were up to, those gluttons. His eye twitched as a piece of cake landed on his cheek, and he wiped the saliva-drenched dessert away with disgust. Turning around, he yelled, "Save some for us, you idiots!"

With a resentful sigh, Ace plopped down on one of the bouncy armchairs. "Seriously though, Sabo. How did you afford all of this?" He gestured broadly to the grandeur.

"I get paid pretty well," Sabo replied casually, dodging flying piece of unidentified edible substance. "Damnit, Lu! Don't wreck my house!" But he made no move to stop them as he seated himself comfortably in one of the couches, with Portgas following in suit.

"It just occurred to me," Portgas said, "You're researching about the Yami Yami no Mi and Blackbeard, right? Do you have any answers for all of this weird crap that's happening?"

"I was going to get that later when we finally all settle down." Sabo snickered when a lone chicken leg was catapulted across the room to Ace, who snatched it out of the air and promptly began tearing away at the meat.

"It's good not to waste food," Ace mumbled around the chicken.

"Anyways," the blonde continued, "I do have enough information to answer the questions, but they can wait later. I've proposed an alliance with Commodore Smoker."

"Why?!"

"He has information I want, and I have information that he wants. Somehow the man managed to get his hands on things that even my team didn't pick up, which makes me question if he has being in contact with Blackbeard himself. And it also seems that he hasn't said a word to the Marine Headquarters either, which makes him a perfect candidate to form an alliance with. He'll be a useful ally."

"It'll be a bad idea for me to get involved," Ace muttered darkly, tossing away the remaining bones into a small trashcan. "After all I've caused enough trouble in broad daylight for him, not to mention a dozen skirmishes with him underground because he's always after Luffy like a creep."

"Exactly!" Portgas chimed in. "He's got… a thing or something for my adorable Luffy."

Sabo eyed them strangely. "There was something very wrong in both of your statements right there."

They glared at him. "What?"

"Nothing, nothing at all."

* * *

**(More brother complex! Whoohoo!)**

**I'm sorry for the late update, I got swamped with homework and there's still a crap load of stuff I should be doing as well, like writing a dratted English essay that's making me want to tear my hair out. And also, sorry for the giddiness and crazy stuff in the chapter. I wrote it when drinking energy drinks, and that's the only thing that keeps me awake though I think it gives me a little **_**too **_** much energy, to be honest. Aaaaand now that it's fading away I'm starting to feel miserable about my writing… It… sucks so much… T^T… Maybe I have bi-polar disorder…**

**Anyhow, like always hope you guys enjoyed it, and please review! Makes me want to update faster.**

**~Shen**


	18. Answers

**Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece. If I did then [spoiler of Chapter 700]!**

* * *

"So! Now that everyone is awake, I'd like to begin the meeting," Sabo announced, banging a polished gavel against the smooth surface of the expensive table. He shot a dirty glance at the younger two, who were still busy munching on miscellaneous food items and making a huge mess of crumbs and bits of food on the soft, carpeted floor. Usopp was too dazed to properly do anything as he sat blankly on the plushy couch, muttering unintelligible words under his breath, much like a madman. The former noble couldn't help but be worried for the sharpshooter's current state of being, but dismissed the thought. It wasn't the first time that happened, either.

"Meeting?" Luffy and Lu echoed, tilting their heads.

"Yes, meeting. What we're talking about is serious here," he replied seriously, folding his hands. "We're looking at a possible war upcoming soon, and of course we would want to avert it. It might cause an unaccountable amount of casualties and property destruction depending on where it takes place. People like Blackbeard do not take the welfare of people into account."

"A war sounds kind of fun," Lu commented. "I wanna see how many people I can beat up."

Surprisingly, it was Luffy that smashed his fist down his counterpart's head with a fierce scowl. "Believe me, it's not," he muttered darkly, his other hand subconsciously brushing over his X-scar. Coughing awkwardly, he scooted back in his chair and tilted the straw hat down.

_It must've been hard for him_, Sabo reflected sadly. To go through so much to save your brother, only to have him snatched out of your hands and killed… He could only imagine how painful it must've been for the older Luffy to come to terms with the devastating event, feeling a slight pang of guilt knowing that Luffy already lost another brother before and vowed to become stronger so no one else would ever die.

By his side, Portgas's face had flushed a dark red as he wrapped his arms around his chest absentmindedly, where a similar scar was. His eyes took on an unreadable quality, lips pressed in a thin line.

Sabo coughed awkwardly into his long sleeve, diverting his attention away from the pirates. "So what we know is that Blackbeard is out for revenge, and he intends to provoke a full-scale war to start a new age of the underground, so to speak. My team and I have been trying to uncover bits about him, but it's amazing how well he hides his tracks. We're no closer to finding anything more than before, but it seems that Smoker has been in contact with him, voluntary or not."

"Smoker?" Usopp snapped out of his trance and shuddered at the name. "But isn't he the super no-nonsense kind of guy that's super scary?"

"He's one of the most reliable and trustworthy marines though, going by his own form of justice unlike most of the mindless soldiers you have nowadays," said Sabo with a shrug. "If I was him I'd go for Smoker first. Blackbeard's the kind of guy to like to make a flashy scene and stir up trouble. But I am assuming what Blackbeard didn't anticipate is that the commodore is more or less freelance, he doesn't like listening to his superiors too much. He's a … special case."

"Yeah, Smokey's awesome!" Luffy chirped in with a bright smile. "He's helped us before even though he's a marine and stuff."

"And he's so fun to annoy," Lu added with a snicker. "Usopp, remember the time we set his patrol car on fire? That was so fun!"

The sniper paled even further and shook his head vigorously. "No, that was not! He knew it was us! I swear he did!"

Ace's eyebrow twitched as the sides of his mouth pulled into a deep frown. "I had to bail you out on that, Lu. So the act was added on _my _list of petty crimes and not yours for the sake of your diploma. But it made him even more pissed at me, and he even said I had a brother complex!"

Sabo's next cough sounded suspiciously like "I agree", muffled by his shirt sleeve once more as he attempted to keep a straight face. "Well anyways, that's not the point. What I'm trying to say is that because of Smoker's attitude, it'll be hard to approach and work with him properly if we are really setting an alliance with my team to the two other parties."

With a shriek of "What?!", there was a dull thud as Usopp fell forwards and face planted onto the carpeted floor and stayed there unconscious. Ace hastily bent down to retrieve the teen's limp body and arranged him back onto his chair the best he could, organizing the floppy limbs into a natural sitting posture. But with his head lolling back, mouth hung open loosely, and arms flipped over the seat like he was surrendering, it was hard not to laugh at the comedic pose.

"I'm confused," Lu said. "So we're working with Smokey now? But then I thought Shanks and that mustache old man were working together? Wait."

"Basically," Sabo said patiently. "There's a temporary agreement between Whitebeard and Shanks, right? That was before I came into the picture. My team is currently researching about Blackbeard, and I believe it'll be in our best interest to propose an alliance to the two Yonkou as intel collecting, partly because you guys are my brothers after all. I am also planning on teaming up temporarily with Smoker in order to obtain some much needed information as I just said before."

"Oi, if there's actually going to be an alliance with Smoker then me and Lu and the rest will have to stay out of it," Ace brought up an important point. "We'd like to keep our identities a secret, you know. I'll be thrown into Impel Down permanently, so will the rest of us. They don't even know of the existence of other me and Luffy yet."

"That's true," Sabo conceded, "which is why I'm acting as a middle man. You're probably not going to meet each other at all. My problem right now is that do you think Whitebeard will agree to this sort of thing? It doesn't seem to be in his interest to do so."

"Then again, he agreed to be temporarily allied with Shanks of all people," Portgas added thoughtfully. "Maybe he'll also make an exception to the Revolutionaries… Nah, not likely. Dragon's too shifty and creepy of a guy. Besides, few have ever met him face to face that still lived to tell the tale, I thought?"

"I wouldn't say shifty," Sabo said uncomfortably, picking at his collar. "More like, he's mysterious. He doesn't tell anyone anything so we know virtually nothing about him, not even his closest subordinates like Ivankov. But I'll leave all the talking to you guys with Whitebeard and Shanks, I'm not a part of this."

"What am I supposed to say?" Ace asked incredulously. "Hey Oyaji! Guess what? My long lost brother's actually part of the Revolutionaries and wants to form an alliance. And guess what? He's also working in conjunction with Smokey, isn't that so lovely? He's going to kick me out of the door like he used to when I tried to kill him every day!"

"Ace, you can take care of Whitebeard, I'll go catch Shanks when he's drunk," Lu said helpfully. "Since you know, he acts funny when he's drunk so I won't get yelled at… I think."

"I'm coming with you," Luffy said quickly, sidling closer to his other self. "Ace- I mean, Portgas, you can go with Ace then!"

"I am banking on the fact that Oyaji will just laugh it off or something," Ace muttered, hanging his head. "I think I've suffered one too many times of getting smashed into the wall."

"And I will suffer the fate with you," Portgas said gloomily. "I can hear it already. 'You snot-nosed brat, what were you thinking?' or something along the lines. Then the smashing."

"You guys should brighten up sometimes," Sabo advised wisely as a dark cloud of dread had formed ominously, the aura affecting them all. "It's not that bad of an idea, is it? Without mine or Smoker's help, you guys will be lost as bunny. Last time I checked none of you know what Blackbeard's up to while I have an inkling of it, and the commodore has been informed of that man's plans ahead of time before."

"I was relying on Lu's ability to see the future," Ace sighed. "And it seems to work fine for the most part. But now you're signing us all to our doom! They don't hold the title of a Yonkou for nothing, after all."

"All of you look like I just condemned you," the blonde said weakly as the depressive atmosphere only grew and swallowed the others.

"You did!" all four shot back simultaneously with fierce glares.

Sabo shrank in his seat. "Well I didn't mean to," he meekly responded, holding his hands up as a sign of peace. Then his brain registered. "Did you just say Luffy has precognitive skills?"

"Yeah I do," Luffy replied in a nonchalant fashion as if it was an everyday thing where one gained the mystic powers of foresight.

"Have you had any other side effects? Any strange sick feelings?" Sabo questioned sharply.

"Ummm, no?" Luffy replied slowly, perplexed by the sudden change of mood.

"Good. Just a side-effect, thank goodness…" he breathed out a relieved sigh. Seeing the curious looks given, he continued, "It's got to do with what I'm trying to get at, about the properties of the Yami Yami no Mi."

And just then, Luffy's phone rang in an obnoxiously familiar tune that made Ace clamp his ears forcefully with a grimace. "I'm too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt!" the phone belted cheerfully out from its hidden position in the teen's pocket. Grinning as he caught his brother's expression, he waltzed out the room up the stairs. As he disappeared fully, they heard him answer the call with his standard 'I'm Monkey D. Luffy and I'll be famous' greeting, followed by a long giggle.

"Well, I guess that's another person that's left," Portgas said, baffled by his counterpart's negative reaction to an eccentric song of a deep baritone singing he was too sexy to wear shirts. "It won't matter much anyways, since I doubt Luffy would be paying attention. Anyways, why are you horrified about that song? I don't get it."

"Long story," Ace said, shaking his head slowly. Unwillingly, his mind became filled with unwanted images of a drunken party where a certain hyperactive rubber teenager had coerced him into dancing to a certain song in front of a huge crowd. It didn't matter if all the people present were friends and family; it was embarrassing all the same. His face heated up unconsciously at the memory. "Never am I never stripping off my shirt like that again."

Sabo raised a questionable eyebrow but decided to leave the topic alone – for the time being. "So, about the Yami Yami no Mi… it explains why you and Luffy are in this world. Well, the properties of it, at any rate. I need to first tell you that this isn't an absolute answer because nothing can be fully proven unless we ask Blackbeard himself, though I honestly doubt he knows enough about the extent of his own powers. But from what we have gathered, it seems like there's more to the Yami Yami no Mi than we thought. Apparently the black hole like thing he can conjure through it has similar effects as a real black hole and beyond that, seeing as the multiple universe theory was proven by the existence of Portgas and Luffy. And somehow the effects fluctuated and transformed into a warp and sucked up an unfortunate victim, which is you, Portgas, and send you off to here. The same goes for Luffy. Curiously, with the supposed existence of several different universes somehow both of you were drawn into the same world, which I still need to look into because the chances of something happening is one to infinity, technically speaking. Perhaps it's fate or just pure luck and randomization, who knows?

"And also, whatever ridiculous luck you two carry somehow managed to save your lives while traversing between the dimensions as in theory there'd be many different problems with the travel. A not controlled and monitored travel could lead to side effects like losing limbs, becoming something else, and numerous other unwanted and gruesome possibilities. In Portgas's case, you were healed of your fatal injury when you would've otherwise died, and in Luffy's case nothing much was changed. Maybe it's because Luffy's made of rubber, but the point is, both of you are honestly ludicrously lucky to survive this ordeal."

"Wait!" Portgas interjected. "But I was out for a couple of days! I remember being paralyzed, how did that work?"

"As this is a parallel universe, Ace was busy being stuck in a coma so when you arrived you also entered a comatose stage. I'm guessing people probably thought you were just another sleeping hobo in that bad part of the town and left you alone on the ground." Sabo shrugged. "Anyhow, from that we derived that in order to return you and Luffy to your rightful universe, we'll have to find a way to harness Blackbeard's power and fully control it. We're still trying to formulate a proper way because it's not simple to draw out a person's Devil Fruit powers like that unless you kill him, wait for the Devil Fruit to respawn, and have someone consume the drug all over again, but I'm pretty sure with enough time we'll think up something to return you two home."

There was silence as he finished.

"That's just ridiculous that he has a power like that," Ace said at last. "To be able to send people out of the world… what if he's been abusing the power and making people disappear like that? They might not even make it out of the trip alive, or end up in some kind of creepy world where the zombie apocalypse happened and there are just a few survivors."

"I'm going to kick his ass when I get back then!" Luffy announced. "He's such a mean guy."

"Mean is an understatement, Luffy," Portgas sighed, patting the younger distractedly on the head, who squeaked indignantly and ducked away from his reach with tousled hair. "Oh yeah. Luffy. Did two years already pass? But it's only being a few weeks here. Does that mean that time passes quicker? I don't want to go back to my own world only to find that ten years passed." His tone took on a panicked note.

Sabo shook his head. "I don't think it works that way, actually. It might be a paradox sort of thing that's occurring, as that's more likely. Your life mirrors Ace's, right? That would make the different time theory invalid because you should be ten times older than he is."

"He's not my Luffy then!?" Portgas flung his arms around the teen and hugged him tightly desperately, ignoring his brother's fierce struggles. "But…"

"Well no, he _is _the Luffy from your world, but a Luffy two years in the future. Still technically the same person," Sabo attempted to explain, chuckling at the other's stricken expression.

Portgas relaxed his hold minutely.

"Speaking of Luffy…" Ace began, "Why can Lu see the future? It's so random and out there."

"It's like one of the weird abilities dealing with ESP and paranormal activities," Portgas added grimly, finally releasing the violently squirming Luffy. "A little bit freaky…"

Sabo blinked. "Where do you guys get these ideas? Extrasensory perception and the paranormal have nothing to do with this at all. They're not scientifically proven either, and almost all things you see on the TV are dramatized and fake, something the media cooks up for the sake of popularity and stirring the gullible. So-called facts you read on the internet are false with no evidence to back it up, and arguments are easy to pick apart. ESP simply does not exist to our knowledge, and don't even bring up the myth that humans only use a tiny percentage of their brain."

"Somehow you always have a way to make the rest of us feel like idiots," Ace grumbled sullenly. "See, this is why Luffy is nicer, because I feel smarter." He reached over to Luffy and ruffled his hair, earning a deep growl.

The elder simply grinned. "Well to answer your questions, it may be one of the side effects of opening portals. Portals can cause all kinds of strange things to happen. I don't really have an absolute explanation since this entire mess is still very strange. Think about it though, Lu's ability has come into use and may come into use in the future as well."

"I wish I could see the future, too," Luffy pouted. "Hey, maybe if I wander around Blackbear-" His face got to know Portgas's fist too well for his personal tastes before he managed to complete the sentence, becoming temporarily embedded in the puffy cushions.

"Just ignore the idiot and pretend he's not there," Portgas said with a cheerful grin. "Alright, final question. I seem to be able to do a lot of things other me can do these days, like firing a gun."

"And I can somewhat feel his emotions, too," Ace said. "And right now, he's feeling particularly sadist and wants to rip a particular traitor into pieces, burn them, and scatter the ashes."

Sabo raised an eyebrow. "I think I would be better off without the gruesome details of how you will deal with Teach. As for the transferring abilities, that is simply because you two are the same entity existing in one current universes, so you have begun to merge. It will happen to Luffy and Lu soon enough."

"Merge?! You mean we're going to become one person?" Ace shrieked in horror, jumping up from his comfortable plush seat.

"Bad wording. I mean, more like you two will be even more alike than you are now," Sabo amended hastily, gesturing the freckled man to sit back down again. "There are subtle differences between you two that allow me to tell who's who."

"Oh." Ace plopped back onto the couch.

Portgas grinned. "Hey, does that mean I can ride Striker the motorcycle now?"

"You're not touching it until I teach you!" Ace said sternly. "Don't even think about it."

"If I can steer Striker the boat, who says I can't control the bike?"

"You know how much I spent on it? Most of my money went to buying it! And you bet I'll be pissed when you wreck it."

"I don't even see why you'd use it instead of the underground waterways you have here, isn't that a whole lot more transportable?"

"You guys are arguing with yourselves, you know," Luffy commented offhandedly. "Same people, same thoughts, right Sabo?"

"Exactly so," Sabo said with a smile. "The thought process is so similar it's as if you're arguing with yourself."

They stopped abruptly and snapped their mouths shut at the revelation.

"Maybe they should go to a mental hospital?" Luffy suggested innocently.

"Talking to oneself is a sign of mental instability," Sabo quipped as his grin widened devilishly.

Ace and Portgas's face were steadily heating up from the verbal attack, resembling much like ripened tomatoes. Steam could've been coming out of their ears if it was physically possible for the human body to achieve such a feat of expelling vapor from the eardrums. "You two are asking for a fight, aren't you?" Ace growled, eyes flashing darkly.

And somehow, the other Luffy believed it was the perfect time to return from his hiding place up the stairs. He glided elegantly down the railing on one foot in a pirouette as he sang on top of his lungs in a shrilly voice, "I'm too sexy for my love, too sexy for my love, love's going to leave me!" Leaping off the banister, he performed a double somersault and barely missed the expensive chandelier, landing softly on two feet like a cat.

Ace buried his face in his hands, unable to shake away the ghastly memories that mercilessly assaulted his mind. "No, no, no! Stop singing the song, Lu!" he screamed.

With a grin, the younger simply continued his atrocious serenade, singing in an even louder volume from before. "I'm too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt, so sexy it hurts!" His phone began playing the song in sync with him, joining in and forming a jarring duet. Luffy, being the obnoxious little brother he was, began cheering energetically for his counterpart from the sidelines.

"So what's the story behind this?" Portgas asked, watching in amusement as his other self desperately began to chase Lu to stop the music. It was an interesting and funny song, yet managed to cause so much grief for the other.

Sabo laughed. "If I remember correctly, there was one night where they went to a bar with friends. Someone spiked Ace's drink with a high amount of alcohol, enough to get him drunk and senseless, and Lu thought it was a good idea to egg him to dance, so he stripped off his shirt and started dancing to the song. The next morning the news was all over the school and became one of his most embarrassing moments. Truthfully, I am a little disappointed I was not able to witness the event."

With a loud thud, Ace pinned down a writhing Lu with a vicious grin and promptly began his counterattack: tickling the boy like there was no tomorrow. The phone slid out of his hands and was drowned out by Lu's hysterical shrieks of laughter as he attempted to bat away his brother's hands.

"Oh right," Sabo said, "I still have to call our dear commodore regarding serious business, though I have the funniest feeling he will not take it kindly." He reached down to his pocket.

Portgas shook his head. "Not a good idea when we still have a tickling fest going on. The poor guy would be scarred."

"Good point," the former noble conceded, withdrawing his hand. "I'll save it for later, then. And don't forget, you and Ace all have your respective jobs as well."

Overhearing their short conversation, Lu had stopped giggling and rolled out of his brother's grasp, picking up his abandoned phone once more. He tapped the screen several times, and they heard the sound of the phone beeping. "Shanks! Hi!" he chirped merrily as the other side picked up. "Guess what, I found another one of myself!"

"Got to be the best 'hello' ever," Sabo muttered dryly.

To Shanks's credit, however, the red-haired man had replied in a calm voice though it may attribute to the fact that he was probably intoxicated like afternoons. "Oh really? Where did you find him?"

"Ummm… I don't know, Ace and Ace found him! And you know, he's two years older than me and super cool!"

"That's Shanks?!" Luffy exclaimed. "Shanks! I haven't heard you or seen you in so long!"

"This is the other Luffy, I take it? Did I die or something?"

"No, I just haven't seen you in a long time!"

Shanks laughed. "Well you two wanna come over to my place later this afternoon? I want to see the other Luffy."

Lu shot Ace a questioning look, who gave a thumbs up and mouthed, "Go ahead."

"Alrighty!" Lu cheered. "Oh yeah, and there's something super important I have to tell you! I found my long lost brother and some other stuff that can wait till later. See ya!" With that, he hung up quickly before the other could question him about his cryptic words.

"You know, you don't just drop something like you found your long lost brother and hang up like that," Ace sighed.

Lu simply shrugged. "Since you'll be driving us anyways, Sabo, do you guys want to come along?"

"There's no way you're dragging us all into hell with you!" they yelled back in unison.

* * *

However on that day, all of them received long scoldings from three separate and very furious parties, returning with multiple wounds and downtrodden spirits. Usopp had remained blissfully passed out until he was finally sent home at the end of the long day, oblivious to the violent scenes that unfolded around him.

* * *

**Boring chapter to write, boring chapter to read. Nonetheless it was important to spill out all the information I've been keeping to myself until now, though I keep getting so distracted in doing other things because of how boring it is. And it involved listening to "I'm Too Sexy" over and over again for the fun of it. Maybe I should do an omake on what happened to Ace that night in the club, if anyone is interested.**

**I am also starting a side project that I will not post until I get at least five chapters in, but it's drastically different from all the stuff I've written (I think) and involves… well… I might just put up a poll on my profile to see if there's enough interest for me to start publishing it. **

**As always, please leave a review! It motivates me to write faster! And also, if you read the newest manga chapter to the ones who follow the manga, leave your thoughts about the chapter as well in the review!**

**~Shen**


End file.
